MOSCOW - THE UN Security Council resolution expected to be adopted after North Korea's nuclear test should not include any 'economic embargoes' against Pyongyang, Russia's UN envoy said on Wednesday.
Put N.Korea back on terror blacklist
WASHINGTON - SIXTEEN US Republican Senators ramped up pressure on North Korea on Wednesday, calling for placing the communist regime back on the US list of terror-sponsoring states.
'Now is not the time for rhetoric,' said Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, adding that he intended to force an amendment on a tobacco bill that would require the Secretary of State to relist the reclusive North.
'Our task is that the introduction of economic embargoes against North Korea not be included in this resolution,' Vitaly Churkin told reporters in a video conference from New York.
North Korea's nuclear tests held very close to Russian borders 'are unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable, there is no way to justify these irresponsible steps,' a Kremlin source said as quoted by RIA Novosti.
'So President Dmitry Medvedev's position on this is very tough,' the source said, adding however that 'breaking off dialogue and isolating them is not the answer, we must know what is going on there.'
The five permanent United Nations Security Council members including Russia are in talks on a new resolution to punish North Korea for its May 25 nuclear test - the second since 2006.
The United States is pushing for tougher sanctions on the North over its nuclear defiance, but Russia has in the past opposed such measures.
'There will be diplomatic signals... but we need to resolve the economic problems faced by North Korea. These problem will not be solved through a UN resolution but through a diplomatic process,' Mr Churkin said. -- AFP
