Washington's actions show US needs no real dialogue with Pyongyang, Russian expert notes

MOSCOW, August 10. /TASS/. The United States’ diplomacy is obviously seeking to continue pressure on Pyongyang as it needs no real dialogue with North Korea, a Russian expert told TASS on Friday.

"The US administration and diplomacy apparently wants neither improvement in relations with North Korea nor genuine dialogue with it. On the contrary, their actions are geared towards rejection, isolation and even provocation to make it lose composure and frustrate this dialogue in the long run," said Georgy Toloraya, director of the Center for Russia’s Strategy in Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Economy.

"The Americans are going to all lengths to find more and more sins and are focusing all the attention on that," he said. "Thus, the US media are silent about the talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, saying not a single word about plans to promote the dialogue or measures to relax tensions. Nothing."

"Everything is being done to prevent another meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un," he stressed.

The expert drew attention to the fact that the US’ pressure on North Korea is obviously coordinated with the anti-Russian campaign. "They are seeking to hype a myth about some kind of links between Russia and North Korea, about Moscow’s connivance and support to Pyongyang," he said.

"Leading global media, right on cue, have recently lashed out on Russia accusing it of violating the anti-North Korean sanctions," Toloraya noted. "Thus, such allegations are backed by all sorts of research reports and statements by US high-level representatives, including by Us Permanent Representative to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo."

Such allegations, according to the expert, are nothing but fakes and the series of statements on that subject looks like a well-choreographed campaign. "For instance, such topic as Russia’s issuing visas to North Korean workers. As a matter of fact, it was about the Russian ministry of labor and social protection’s quotas for workers who are already in Russia and who have permits to work in our country till 2019," he said. "Notably, many of North Korean workers had to leave Russia as they did not fall under the quotas."

Apart from that, Moscow has been accused of "acting in bypassing of the United Nations Security Council resolution on North Korea and supplying oil products to that country via the [railway] station Khasan declaring the cargoes as bound for China," he noted. "As a matter of fact, Khasan has no railway links with China. Moreover, such allegations obviously are meant to discredit Korean-Russian cooperation, including the Khasan-Rajin project."

"Other numerous ungrounded accusations against Russian citizens and legal entities are obvious seeking the same purpose," he added.