UNITED NATIONS, July 20. /TASS/. Russia is closely examining the US information on the ostensibly illegal supplies of oil to the DPRK in order to take a decision on the US request to ban supplies of oil refining products there, the Deputy Chief of Russian Mission at the UN, Dmitry Polyansky twittered on Thursday.
"Russia is closely examining the US request and is seeking additional information on every single case of "illegal" transfer of petroleum to the DPRK claimed by the US," he wrote. "We are also seeking the explanation of methodology used in making calculation of "illegally" exported petroleum."
A well-informed diplomatic source at the UN told TASS earlier on the same day Russia and China had turned down a US request to a committee of the UN Security Council to ban supplies of oil refining products to the DPRK, as Washington had not provided proofs of its claims or the methodology of computations.
"The American side submitted a proposal on banning the supplies of oil products to the DPRK to Committee No. 1718 on July 12," the interlocutor said. "Russia and China asked for more time to scrutinize the document and requested ample proof that the quota for the supplies had been used up."
On July 12, the US accused the DPRK of encroachments on the UN Security Council’s sanctions restricting the exports of oil products to that country. Washington also made claims about transshipment of oil products on high seas.
Reuters said the US Administration also made a demand to Moscow and Beijing that they stop any supplies of oil derivatives to the DPRK immediately.