Russia intends to force the United Nations Security Council “to revise sanctions measures” on North Korea “towards easing them,” a diplomatic official explained after Moscow killed an international mechanism for monitoring sanctions violations.

“It is clear to us that the [U.N. Security] Council can no longer act on the Korean Peninsula issues according to the old patterns,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday, per state-run Tass. “On the contrary, in the absence of mechanisms to revise sanctions measures towards easing them, this instrument remains a serious irritant that hinders confidence-building and the maintenance of political dialogue.”