MOSCOW: A new UN Security Council resolution on North Korea will include additional sanctions against the communist regime but will not introduce an economic embargo, Russia’s UN envoy said on Wednesday.
At an emergency meeting last week the UN Security Council denounced Pyongyang’s May 25 nuclear test as a violation of Resolution 1718 and the international non-proliferation regime. All members agreed to draft a new resolution on the North, already under a number of UN sanctions over its first nuclear test, carried out in 2006.
“This resolution will not aim to impose any kind of economic embargo on North Korea,” Vitaly Churkin said during a Moscow-New York teleconference hosted by RIA Novosti.
He said that the new document should be aimed at reducing the risks of nuclear proliferation and returning to six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, but should not lead to a deterioration in the living conditions of the civilian population.
“As we all know, the economic situation there is already difficult,” he said.
The six-nation talks involving North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States, were launched in 2003 after Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
Under deals reached in 2007, the North began disabling a nuclear reactor and other facilities at Yongbyon under international supervision, in exchange for economic aid and political incentives, which included the deliveries of fuel oil to Pyongyang.
However, in December last year, a round of six-nation talks ended in deadlock over a U.S. demand that nuclear inspectors be allowed to take samples out of the country from North Korean facilities for further analysis.
Churkin said: “The UN resolution will not resolve economic problems in North Korea, but the country could certainly make significant progress in the development of its economy through negotiations and improving relations” with South Korea and other countries.
A Kremlin source told RIA Novosti on Wednesday that the Russian leadership had no intention to turn a blind eye to North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, but was opposed to measures that would isolate Pyongyang.
