WEB DESK
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticized Russia for attempting to undermine UN Security Council sanctions resolutions against North Korea.
He said that enforcement of the resolutions is essential to achieving the North’s denuclearization.
Pompeo’s remarks follow Russian moves to block the publication of a report into how sanctions are being implemented. A UN Security Council committee was due to publish the report in early September, but was prevented from doing so by objections from Russia.
The United States says Russia pressured the committee into rewriting the report, which referred to Moscow’s sanctions violations.
At a news conference on Friday, Pompeo expressed hope the Security Council committee would remain independent and not allow a single country to draft language and have it inserted.
He said the UN Security Council resolutions are central to President Donald Trump’s efforts to convince North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of the necessity of full denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.