BRATISLAVA, January 10. /TASS/. Slovakia has not signed the statement sponsored by nearly 50 Western countries condemning the alleged transfer of weapons from North Korea to Russia due to a lack of evidence, Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar said, as quoted by the TASR news agency.
"We have consistently been on the side of compliance with international law and UN Security Council sanctions, but we're not going to do it [sign the statement] just because somebody approaches us and says that they think so but aren't going to give us evidence to prove it," said Blanar. "We refuse to be handed a text that we cannot comment on, and at the same time to subscribe to something when we have no relevant evidence," he added
Slovakia and Hungary were the only EU member states that did not sign a statement by foreign ministers of several Western countries on the alleged transfer of weapons from North Korea to Russia. The Slovak liberal parliamentary opposition, reacting to Blanar's statement, intends to initiate an extraordinary meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council (parliament) of the republic, TASR reported.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not comment on the White House's statements about Russia's alleged use of missiles from North Korea to strike Ukraine on January 9. "We leave it without comment," he told reporters in response to a request to give a statement.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has repeatedly emphasized that Western countries' accusations of illegal military and technical cooperation between Russia and North Korea are unsubstantiated. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier called Washington's claims that Pyongyang was providing military aid to Moscow pure speculation.