The UN Security Council should present a diplomatic framework within which the concerned parties could negotiate a solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia told reporters.
“We would like the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution on North Korea that provides for a clear guidance on how to resolve the crisis. Such resolution should envisage steps to bring the parties to the negotiating table,” Nebenzia said on Friday, Sputnik reported.
Nebenzia stated it is not enough for the Security Council to merely take note of the current state of affairs and express the desire for a positive and peaceful outcome.
“[Such a resolution] should serve as an action plan towards achieving something specific,” Nebenzia said.
Nebenzia emphasized that introducing more sanctions, as suggested by some UN Security Council members, would not help to ease the existing tensions. On the contrary, the fact that North Korea chose to launch several missiles after the adoption of the most recent Security Council resolution on sanctions, shows these measures are no longer efficient.
The ambassador pointed out that only the plan proposed by Russia and China for a political-diplomatic solution contains specific steps to achieve that goal, and Moscow continues to engage with its counterparts to searching for best ways to move forward.
Russia and China have proposed a plan that would see North Korea suspend its ballistic missile program and the United States and South Korea simultaneously call a moratorium on large-scale missile exercises, both moves aimed at paving the way for multilateral talks.
Tensions regarding North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs flared up this summer following the adoption of the latest round of UN Security Council sanctions, which led to North Korea trading threats and warnings with the United States.
North Korea’s most recent missile test took place on Tuesday, with the launch of an intermediate-range Hwasong-12 ballistic missile, which flew over Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean 733 miles east of Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.
