UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL 1718 COMMITTEE: OPEN BRIEFING
Statement by Ms. Briony Daley Whitworth, Political Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Australia to the United Nations, New York
3 November 2025
Thank you, Chair, for convening this open briefing and providing additional information to all Member States on the ongoing work of the Committee, and its efforts towards implementation and national reporting.
Australia aligns with the statement made by the US on behalf of the MSMT group of countries.
Australia remains deeply concerned by the DPRK’s ongoing pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems, as well as its malicious cyber activities, gross human rights violations and the transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine.
These activities, and Russia’s deepening military relationship with the DPRK flagrantly violate unanimous UN Security Council resolutions, pose serious challenges to non-proliferation efforts, and undermine international stability.
Russia’s veto of the resolution renewing the 1718 Committee Panel of Experts’ mandate severely erodes Member States’ ability to implement the Security Council resolutions, and address the DPRK’s destabilizing and unlawful actions.
It has also undermined the Council’s credibility on this issue by creating an environment that has allowed the DPRK to further develop its unlawful weapons programs unabated.
In this context, and as we have heard this morning, a group of 10 states established a member state-led multilateral sanctions monitoring body (MSMT) in October 2024 to monitor and highlight non‑compliance with DPRK sanctions.
As has been clearly stated this morning, the MSMT does not substitute the Panel of Experts, but performs an essential information gathering and dissemination function by monitoring violations and evasions contributing to the DPRK’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The MSMT reports – the first, released in May 2025, focusing on unlawful arms transfers between the DPRK and Russia; and second, released last month, focusing on DPRK cyber operations and IT worker activities – shed light on continued DPRK sanctions contraventions and their impact in both the Asia-Pacific region, and further afield.
The DPRK’s extensive malicious cyber activity, including cybercrime operations, cryptocurrency theft, and international deployment of IT workers, as detailed in the latest MSMT report, represent a global threat – which undermines trust in cyberspace and causes significant economic, social and security costs.
International cooperation is vital to respond to this challenge – through information sharing, investigation, cybersecurity uplift, and full implementation of sanctions.
We continue to call on Member States to re-establish the 1718 Committee Panel of Experts in its full form, and hope, in the meantime, that the MSMT reports will help to ensure all UN Member States have the essential information needed so we can all comply with our obligations to implement international law, including UN Security Council resolution sanctions against the DPRK.
Thank you.