UNITED NATIONS, November 28. /TASS/. The actions of the US and its allies, such as joint military maneuvers near the border of North Korea, are inconsistent with plans to reduce tensions in the Korean Peninsula and beyond, according to Russia’s deputy envoy to the UN Anna Yevstigneyeva.
"At every opportunity, the US delegation convenes the Security Council to make itself look like a victim of a situation created allegedly solely by Pyongyang," she said. "In March, we already brought to the council's attention the bellicose maneuvers that the US, Japan and the Republic of Korea held in close proximity to the DPRK's borders."
"Unfortunately, the right conclusions have not been made since then, and the US continues to break records in showing off its military power thousands of kilometers from its borders," she continued. "So far this year, the allies have already conducted six joint exercises with the direct participation of US military forces."
The diplomat said that two US B-52H strategic bombers approached the peninsula on November 15 for the second time in a month, and the US and the Republic of Korea completed the latest of their major naval exercises in the Sea of Japan on November 16. On November 21, a US carrier strike group led by the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson called at a naval base in the South Korean city of Busan, just a month after the US aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan visited the base.
"It would be very interesting to hear from the US delegation how these actions are consistent with the requirement of paragraph 28 of the council’s Resolution 2397 that calls for work to ease tensions in the Korean Peninsula and beyond?" Yevstigneyeva said.
"Additionally, it draws attention that as a retaliatory measure the government of the Republic of Korea decided to partially suspend the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, which plays an important role in maintaining stability and preventing armed incidents near the military demarcation line. Such steps could not but cause a backlash," she stated.
"Concerns are also caused by contradictory signals from US allies in Northeast Asia - Tokyo and Seoul - about the so-called strengthening of cooperation with Washington in the nuclear area, which could well be interpreted as raising the possibility of hosting US nuclear weapons on their territory and developing their own nuclear weapons," Yevstigneyeva said.