UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has selected a group of highly qualified people to monitor sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council on North Korea, a US official said Monday, according to dpa. The group will become functional in the coming weeks to begin the difficult work of overseeing the implementation of UN sanctions, US Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters. The names of the group have not been made public, Rice said. The sanctions range from a ban on exports of nuclear technology and weapons to Pyongyang to a freeze of assets and a travel ban on some North Koreans involved in their country's nuclear activities. The sanctions were imposed in June after North Korea detonated its second nuclear device and fired a series of missiles. The United Arab Emirates last month seized a ship allegedly transporting weapons from North Korea to Iran. The UAE informed a council's sanctions panel of the seizure. The panel has demanded more information from Pyongyang and the deadline for a reply expired last week. "The increased detection and global cooperation that we have seen will help in the detection and deterrence of future violations," Rice said. She said the sanctions panel is investigating the seizure of the ship by the UAE. Rice said the United States is determined to see the sanctions implemented. "The US goal remains a dialogue among the six parties, leading to the complete, irreversible and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," she said. The six parties involved in the failed talks to stop North Korea's nuclear activities are China, the US, Russia, Japan and North and South Korea. North Korea sent a letter to the council on September 3, saying it needed not reply to the UN sanctions panel that sought more information on the ship. The letter said nuclear activities and firing of missiles were taken to counter the "high-handed act and threat" by the international community to deprive Pyongyang of its "rights to peaceful economic construction." The letter said the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula was "closely related with the US nuclear policy towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)." North Korea said it has also completed a new phase in its uranium enrichment programme and plutonium that has been extracted is being weaponized. "We are prepared for both dialogue and sanctions," the letter said. "If some permanent members of the UN Security Council wish to put sanctions first before dialogue, we would respond with bolstering our nuclear deterrence first before we meet them in a dialogue."
