DPRK: PANEL OF EXPERTS ALMOST UP AND RUNNING

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000812 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/17/2019 TAGS: PREL PHUM ETTC MCAP KN UNSC SUBJECT: DPRK: PANEL OF EXPERTS ALMOST UP AND RUNNING REF: A. USUN 718 ¶B. USUN 759 Classified By: Amb. Alejandro Wolff for Reasons 1.4 (B),(D) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The newly-created UN Panel of Experts (POE) for North Korea is on track to be operational by mid- to late-September, somewhat later than planned. As a result of various delays -- namely political wrangling and logistics snags -- none of the seven experts has yet arrived in New York. The U.S. expert has just accepted his appointment and will arrive September 21. The POE will not be constituted in time to submit an interim report to the Security Council by September 12, as requested in UNSCR 1874. Consequently, the 1718 Committee chair may brief the Security Council on this situation and suggest that the POE take an additional sixty days to prepare a detailed and comprehensive interim report. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) The newly-created UN Panel of Experts (POE) -- an independent team established in UNSCR 1874 to monitor the enforcement of UN sanctions on North Korea and recommend ways to improve their implementation -- is on track to be fully constituted and operational by late-September. Assembling this group has taken longer than normal for other UN sanctions expert panels. After UNSCR 1874 was adopted, the 1718 Committee had to overcome political disagreements over the geographic composition of the team (ref A). Once those issues were resolved, the Secretary General formally named on August 12 the POE's seven members, who will from the P-5 countries, Japan and South Korea (ref B). After the formal appointment, the UN Secretariat then took additional time to send out formal letters of appointment to the experts. ¶3. (C) Because of these delays, none of the POE's seven members has yet arrived in New York (as of August 28),eight weeks after the Security Council adopted UNSCR 1874. According to the Secretariat, most team members have formally accepted the offer and are now waiting for U.S. visas. The Secretariat is still nailing down details with two experts (Chinese and Japanese) and discussing compensation issues with another. The Secretariat is aiming for all POE members to arrive in New York no later than mid-September. U.S. expert Vic Comras, a retired FSO with substantial economic sanctions experience, has formally accepted his appointment and plans to relocate to New York on/about September 21. Comras has requested inter-agency briefings in Washington about DPRK sanctions issues sometime after September 10. ¶4. (C) Because of the delays in its establishment, the POE will not be constituted in time to submit an interim report to the Security Council by September 12, as was requested in UNSCR 1874. Consequently, the chair of the 1718 Committee (Turkish charge) may brief the Security Council on this situation and state that the POE will submit the requested report within an additional sixty days. (NOTE: Other UN sanctions expert panels have often asked for -- and been granted -- extensions to reporting deadlines in the event of such unforeseen circumstances. END NOTE.). Providing the POE with this additional time will allow the team to draft a comprehensive and detailed report, which should include recommendations on improving sanctions implementation and information on specific incidents of sanctions non-compliance. RICE