All news

Dialogue needed to settle situation around DPRK, says Russian diplomat

Anatoly Antonov also aired skepticism concerning the continued military exercises in the vicinity of the DPRK border, saying they would unlikely change its foreign policy

NEW YORK, October 28. /TASS/. Sanctions against the DPRK do not solve the problem and it is important therefore to resume a fruitful dialogue with Pyongyang, the Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov said on Friday in a conversation with a group of Russia reporters.

He took part in the 3rd global youth forum in New York.

"Russia supports all the resolutions of the UN Security Council and observes all the sanctions adopted by the UN in order to stimulate the North Korean leadership to change their foreign policy course and renounce the missile and nuclear ambitions," Antonov said.

"Will sanctions resolve these problems? I have only one answer to this today, considering that I’ve spent many years tackling these problems, and the answer is sanctions don’t offer a solution," he said. "The blunt suffocation of the country by sanctions won’t work and we must think about how to resume a fruitful dialogue, not only grip it in sanctions."

Antonov also aired skepticism concerning the continued military exercises in the vicinity of the DPRK border, saying they would unlikely change its foreign policy.

"This only provokes further actions on the part of the DPRK," he said. "That country is our neighbor and the development close to our borders definitely make us feel concerned.".