VLADIVOSTOK, Russia/SEOUL (Reuters) - Resolving the
North Korean nuclear crisis is impossible with sanctions and pressure
alone, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday after meeting
his South Korean counterpart, adding that the impact of cutting oil
would be worrying.
Putin met South Korea’s Moon
Jae-in on the sidelines of an economic summit in the eastern Russian
city of Vladivostok amid mounting international concern that their
neighbor plans more weapons tests, possibly a long-range missile launch
ahead of a weekend anniversary.
Putin denounced
North Korea’s sixth and largest nuclear bomb test on Sunday, saying
Russia did not recognize its nuclear status.
“Pyongyang’s
missile and nuclear program is a crude violation of U.N. Security
Council resolutions, undermines the non-proliferation regime and creates
a threat to the security of northeastern Asia,” Putin said at a joint
news conference.
“At the same time, it is clear
that it is impossible to resolve the problem of the Korean peninsula
only by sanctions and pressure,” he said.
No
headway could be made without political and diplomatic tools, Putin
said, later telling the TASS news agency that Russian and North Korean
delegations might meet at the Vladivostok forum.
Moon,
who came to power this year advocating a policy of pursuing engagement
with North Korea, has come under increasing pressure to take a harder
line.
He has asked the United Nations to consider tough new sanctions after North Korea’s latest nuclear test.
Diplomats
say the U.N. Security Council could consider banning North Korean
textile exports, barring its airline or stopping supplies of oil to the
government and military.
Other measures could
include preventing North Koreans from working abroad and putting top
officials on a blacklist aimed at imposing asset freezes and travel
bans.
“I ask Russia to actively cooperate as
this time it is inevitable that North Korea’s oil supply should be cut
at the least,” Moon told Putin, according to a readout from a South
Korean official.
Source: The Moscow Times. September 6, 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment