US must comply with UN political steps

Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya said on Saturday that Russia will comply with the sanctions against North Korea envisioned by the latest resolution of the UN Security Council but it also expects political steps towards settlement of the crisis on the part of the US.

Addressing an emergency meeting held at the Security Council on Friday, Nebenzya said the US had urged Russia and China to fulfill the sanctions envisioned by Resolution 2375 as soon as possible, Russian Tass news agency reported.

"We said that we’re a responsible member of the international community and we fulfill the UNSC’s resolutions diligently, but this resolution also stipulates the political measures that also should be fulfilled," Nebenzya said, adding "That’s why we urged the Americans and other partners to fulfill the political and diplomatic decisions the resolution spelt out".

Nebenzya noted that the international community had found itself in a vicious circle in the case of North Korea, as a yet another resolution follows a yet another missile test.

Russia has kept stressing there is no way out of the North Korean crisis other than the political and diplomatic one, Nebenzya pointed out.

To break out of that circle, offbeat and non-trivial thinking is needed. Also, it is important to employ diplomacy and, quite possibly, to turn to the mediatory services of the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, he stated.

The only proposal pertaining to a political and diplomatic settlement of the situation on the Korean Peninsula came this summer from Moscow and Beijing that proposed a roadmap indicating a freeze on joint US-South Korean military exercises that incite North Korea, he added.

Source: MENA