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Draft resolution on North Korea should be adopted - Russian ambassador to UN

"I cannot say that this is a 100-percent ideal text but this is a very complicated text", Russian Ambassador to UN Vladimir Churkin said

UNITED NATIONS, March 2. /TASS/. UN Security Council’s draft resolution on expanding sanctions against North Korea is not ideal but it is necessary to adopt it, Russian Ambassador to UN Vladimir Churkin told reporters on Tuesday.

"I cannot say that this is a 100-percent ideal text but this is a very complicated text. This is a resolution which is necessary, which the (UN) Security Council should adopt because of certain challenges from North Korea," Churkin said.

The diplomat noted that the US delegation took into account several Russia’s proposals. "We had several issues that had to be dealt with. We discussed them with the American delegation. I think they took into account some of our concerns. Have they taken into account all concerns? Not really but we are searching for a consensus," the ambassador said.

The Russian mission to UN told TASs earlier that voting on the draft resolution is planned for 6pm Moscow time on Wednesday. Several changes were made in the final text after Russian-US consultations. In particular, the ban on jet fuel deliveries to North Korea which was included in the initial draft resolution, has been softened. The latest version of the draft excludes from the ban filling passenger planes bound for North Korea in order to allow them to reach their destination and return.

The draft resolution also names individuals subject to inclusion in the sanctions list. Employee of the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporat Jang Song Chol, named as "the company’s representative in Russia," was excluded from the list. Churkin said that Jang Song Chol "is not even in Russia." "This is the problem. That’s why we were surprised to even find hem there (on the list)," the diplomat noted.

On January 7 North Korea announced a successful launch of the Kwangmyongsong-4 space satellite. A month earlier, on January 6, Pyongyang carried out an underground nuclear test, the fourth one in the past ten years. United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1718, 1874, 2087 and 2094 prohibit any activities linked with nuclear technologies and development of ballistic missiles in North Korea.

Following the latest nuclear test, the United Nations Security Council has been working on a resolution toughening anti-Pyongyang sanctions. The current sanction regime includes pinpoint sanctions against individuals and organizations engaged in the missile and nuclear programs, a weapons embargo and a ban on technology transfer and exports of luxury goods to North Korea. United States’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations Samantha Power said the draft resolution has the toughest set of sanctions the Security Council has ever imposed in the past 20 years.