Russia Calls for Investigation into Leaks of UN Reports on North Korea
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russia calls upon the UN Secretariat to investigate leaks of confidential expert reports about the compliance with UN Security Council sanctions on North Korea, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy said.
"We regret that the confidential report of the UN experts on the DPRK is likely to be leaked to the press again and strongly condemn such practices which may have serious consequences," Polyansky said, TASS reported.
"We call on UN to investigate every such incident and prevent them," he added.
A similar statement was issued by the Chinese embassy to the UN.
"China requests the Secretariat to take this issue seriously and avoid leakage in the future," Chinese diplomats said in a statement. "China has been completely and strictly implementing DPRK-related resolutions of the Security Council, and faithfully fulfilling its international obligations."
Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing a confidential report of independent UN experts, that, according to certain nations North Korea continues to pursue its nuclear weapons program and probably developed nuclear devices to fit ballistic missiles. Reuters did not specify the states that came forward with those assertions.
North Korea is currently under the strictest set of international sanctions. The UN Security Council’s Resolution 2397 passed in 2017 stipulates new restrictions on supplies of crude oil. Countries were required to expel all North Korean workers by the end of 2019. The restrictions came as Pyongyang continued developing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
