Update: This article was updated at 7.54am KT to correct an attributional error

Since the announcement of United Nations Security Resolution 2371, which included a range of sector-wide measures that could seriously impact Pyongyang’s foreign currency earning capabilities, Russia has made it increasingly clear that it is opposed to further sanctions against the North.

Immediately after the sanctions package was revealed, Russia’s Ambassador to the UN stated Russia was not interested in measures that would economically asphyxiate the North. Then last week, after North Korea’s Hwasong-12 intermediate range ballistic missile launch over Japan, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S.