MOSCOW, February 12 (Itar-Tass) – Russia insists that North Korea should fully abandon its missile and nuclear programs, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in comments on Pyongyang’s nuclear test conducted on Tuesday.
“We insist that North Korea should stop illegal actions, strictly fulfil all requirements of the UN Security Council, fully abandon missile and nuclear programs, return to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the IAEA comprehensive guarantees ,” the ministry said.
“Only so and no other way North Korea will be able to pull out from effective international isolation, which will open the door to international cooperation in different directions without exclusion of peaceful atom and space,” the ministry said. “We are confident that this path meets interests, first of all, of North Korea itself.”
“Along with this we expect that Pyongyang’s current step will not be used as a pretext for building up military activity on the Korean Peninsula,” the ministry said.
“The course for “working out missile and nuclear muscles” should be contrasted with the international legal alternative. The time is ripe for creating an effective peacekeeping system in the region that would be based on the principles of equal security for all participants in compliance with multilateral obligations on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the ministry said.
“Russia calls on all interested parties to show restraint and plans together with other six-party negotiators not to ease up in efforts towards normalization of the situation on the peninsula through political and diplomatic means,” the ministry said.