Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Comments by the Permanent Mission of Russia to the UN on the results of the UNSC consultations on the situation in the Korean peninsula

Today during the UNSC consultations we have drawn the attention of the members of the Council to serious humanitarian problems that exist as a result of implementation of the sanctions resolutions. In particular, at present the Office of the UN Commissioner on Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Development Program, the World Food Program and other entities experience difficulties in conducting their activity in and together with DPRK. The normal interaction of Pyeongyang has been disrupted with such organizations as UNESCO, the International Olympic Committee, ESCAP and the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent. The North Korean citizens are denied participation in a number of international events organized by these organizations albeit this is not prohibited in any way by the sanctions regime.

The Russian companies that carry out non-profit or strictly humanitarian activity, which is not subject to sanctions regime, also cannot normally operate in DPRK.

We consider such a situation to be absolutely unacceptable and actually violating the decisions of the Council as they should not be directed against the population of DPRK or the activity of humanitarian agencies. In this connection we urge to examine as soon as possible the options to rectify the situation using the entire tool set available to the UNSC.