The UN Security Council today extended for a full year the mandate of a panel of experts monitoring the sanctions against North Korea for exploding nuclear devices, according to dpa. The council voted unanimously to keep the panel under Turkey's leadership until June 12, 2011 and asked that it provide a report in November on North Korea's compliance with the series of sanctions. The panel is composed of council members, including Lebanon and Nigeria as vice chairmen. During the meeting on sanctions, the council did not discuss a complaint letter submitted last Friday by South Korea, which accused North Korea of torpedoing its navy ship Cheonan on March 27, killing 46 sailors. The Seoul government requested that the council adopt measures commensurate to the gravity of the situation on the Korean peninsula. The 15-nation council imposed a series of sanctions after North Korea test-fired nuclear devices in defiance of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2006 and 2009. The UN sanctions include an arms embargo, which encompasses a ban on related financial transactions, technical training or services; and a ban on imports of technology related to nuclear, ballistic missiles and other weapons of mass destruction programmes. The council also prohibits exports of luxury goods to North Korea and imposes a travel ban on designated North Koreans and companies that are involved in the country's nuclear activities. The sanctions panel updated last month a report in which it said the Pyongyang government has continued to export nuclear and ballistic missile technology, using well connected intermediaries abroad to evade UN sanctions.
