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Tensions on the Korean Peninsula

US blocks Russian-Chinese draft UNSC statement on North Korea

According to the Russian diplomat Fyodor Strzhizhovsky, Russia and China’s initiative was meant to support progress in settling the situation on the Korean Peninsula

UNITED NATIONS, March 15. /TASS/. The United States has blocked the Russia-and China-initiated draft statement of the United Nations Security Council in support of the progress in the settlement of the situation on the Korean Peninsula, Russia’s permanent mission to the United Nations said on Thursday.

"The United States’ decision to cut short work on the Russian-Chinese initiative without discussion among the United Nations Security Council members generates the question about Washington’s actual plans in the context of the emerging thaw in the inter-Korean relations," said the mission’s press secretary, Fyodor Strzhizhovsky.

TENSIONS ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA

According to the Russian diplomat, Russia’s and China’s initiative was meant to support progress in settling the situation on the Korean Peninsula following "the recent breakthrough agreements on top-level meetings between the leaders of North Korea, the United States and South Korea."

The one-page statement hailed the "important positive dynamics" in the development of the situation on the Korean Peninsula, welcomed the resumption of dialogue between Pyongyang and Seoul and expressed support to a possible meeting between the United States’ and North Korea’s leaders, Donald Trump and Kim Kim Jong-un.

Speaking to journalists in Washington on March 8, South Korea’s national security advisor said US President Donald Trump was ready to hold a meeting with the North Korean leader by May 2018. However White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on the following day that Trump’s meeting with Kim would take place only after Pyongyang took concrete steps to roll back its nuclear program.

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