North Korea says unable to pay UN dues, blames sanctions

North Korea’s UN Ambassador Ja Song Nam met with UN management chief Jan Beagle on Friday to ask the world body to help secure a bank transaction channel so Pyongyang could pay the nearly $184,000 it says it owes for 2018.

UN member states are required to pay assessed contributions to the world body’s regular and peacekeeping budgets, as well as a budget for international tribunals.

US and UN sanctions on the Foreign Trade Bank, North Korea’s primary foreign exchange bank, were preventing the country ”from honoring its obligation as a UN member state by hindering even normal activities such as payment of the UN contribution,” the North Korean mission said in a statement late on Friday.

”It also shows how cruel and uncivilized the sanctions are,” it said.

If it is unable to make payment “it is crystal clear” the blame lies with the United States and “its followers,” the statement said.

The United States sanctioned the Foreign Trade Bank in 2013, while the UN Security Council blacklisted the bank last August.

The 15-member UN Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

US Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday that Washington would soon announce tough new economic sanctions on North Korea.

According to the UN Charter, countries in arrears in an amount that equals or exceeds the contributions due for two preceding years can lose their vote in the 193-member UN General Assembly. The General Assembly can grant an exception if a country can show that conditions beyond its control contributed to the inability to pay.

The UN website said that as of Jan. 28 there 12 countries in arrears of more than two years. Apart from its 2018 dues, North Korea said it is up to date with its payments.