Russia accuses US of ignoring its proposals while drafting UNSC resolution on North Korea

Top Russian diplomat alleged that the United States ignored Moscow's recommendations white drafting the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution on North Korea. After using the right of veto in voting on the US resolution on North Korea, Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, stated that the US chose to ignore Moscow's recommendations that the resolution will not be supported. "We regret that our American colleagues ignored our repeated explanations given during the consultations on the project, and in the recent meetings of the Security Council that we would not support such a document," he added, the TASS news agency reported. 

Nebenzya pointed out that Russia often proposed changing the resolution's structure into the format of a statement by the UN Security Council Chairman. The Russian envoy further emphasised that the resolutions with new restrictions, as well as the "sanctions paradigm" by the US, have failed to provide security in the region or settle concerns of nuclear and missile non-proliferation. "Problems of security in the region, which directly concern Russia as well, cannot be solved by primitive and straightforward methods with serious side effects for the population," Nebenzya claimed. 

Extending sanctions against North Korea is pointless: Russia

According to the Russian diplomat, extending sanctions against North Korea is not only pointless but also exceedingly dangerous in terms of the consequences of such moves.  "The sanctions package adopted against Pyongyang in 2016-2017 hit, first of all, the lives of ordinary North Koreans," Nebenzya said, as per TASS. He further stated that Western countries have been habituated to "shifting" the blame for the situation on the Korean Peninsula solely to Pyongyang for many years and prefer not to listen to Kim Jong-un regime's appeal to cease hostile operations against his country. 

Russia & China reject UNSC Resolution on North Korea

It is significant to mention here that Russia and China, two major powers, rejected the UN resolution that sought to tighten sanctions against North Korea in response to its recent missile launches. The US spearheaded the move, which could have limited North Korea's oil imports from other countries. Notably, the resolution was spurred by the Kim administration's test of Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles, which was conducted earlier on Thursday, May 26. The Security Council Resolution 2397 was backed by 13 members of the UNSC while Russia and China stated they would prefer a non-binding statement over a new resolution.

Image: AP