Russia ‘undermining’ sanctions, says Trump

‘Sanctions starting to hurt’

MOSCOW, Jan 18, (Agencies): Moscow regards an allegation by US President Donald Trump that it is in breach of UN sanctions on North Korea as absolutely groundless, the Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source at the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying on Thursday.

Trump said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that Russia was helping North Korea evade international sanctions and was probably helping supply Pyongyang with anything that China had stopped giving it.

Trump on Wednesday accused Russia of undermining international sanctions against North Korea and weakening efforts to curb Kim Jong-Un’s nuclear weapons program.

“Russia is not helping us at all with North Korea,” Trump told the Reuters news agency.

“What China is helping us with, Russia is denting.”

Last month, Trump had already denounced Russia for “not helping” global efforts to pressure Pyongyang to halt the development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile delivery systems that have increased tensions with Washington.

Trump has blamed the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election for hampering an improvement in US-Russian relations — thereby limiting his influence over President Vladimir Putin.

“He can do a lot,” Trump said of Putin. “But unfortunately we don’t have much of a relationship with Russia, and in some cases it’s probable that what China takes back, Russia gives. So the net result is not as good as it could be.”

Separately, Trump denounced China’s alleged theft of US intellectual property — an issue under investigation since mid-August.

“We have a very big intellectual property potential fine going, which is going to come out soon,” Trump told Reuters, without clarifying further.

Meanwhile, the US leader refused to say if he had directly communicated in any way with Kim Jong-Un, with whom he has traded public barbs and insults in recent months.

Trump

Problem

“I’d sit down, but I’m not sure that sitting down will solve the problem,” he said.

“I’m not sure that talks will lead to anything meaningful. They’ve talked for 25 years and they’ve taken advantage of our presidents, of our previous presidents.”

Trump said he believed the North Korean regime was getting closer to being able to strike the United States with a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile.

“They’re not there yet, but they’re close. And they get closer every day,” he said.

Trump recently praised the resumption of talks between North and South Korea, and signaled his “openness” to US talks with North Korea “under the right circumstances.”

The two Koreas agreed Wednesday to march together under a single flag at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Pyeongchang, South Korea in February in a sign of easing tensions on the peninsula.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday the United States is getting evidence that international sanctions are “really starting to hurt” North Korea, even as he accused Russia of not implementing all of the measures.

Tillerson told reporters the Russian failure to comply with the UN measures “primarily” concerned fuel “but some other areas potentially as well.” He did not provide details.

Nevertheless, Tillerson said he was confident the pressure would eventually bring North Korea to the negotiating table over its nuclear and missile programs. Pyongyang has carried out nuclear and missiles tests in defiance of UN and other sanctions.

“We are getting a lot of evidence that these sanctions are really starting to hurt,” Tillerson said, citing intelligence and anecdotal evidence from defectors.

He said Japan told a conference on North Korea in Vancouver on Tuesday that more than 100 North Korean fishing boats had drifted into its waters and twothirds of those aboard them had died.

“What they learned is that they are being sent out in the winter time because there’s food shortages and they are being sent out to fish with inadequate fuel to get back,” he said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in had attributed North Korea’s recent willingness to talk to South Korea to the pain of sanctions, Tillerson told an event at Stanford University in California.

But he later said he suspected Russia may not only be failing to implement some sanctions but “frustrating” some of the effort to press the North.

Sanctions

“It’s apparent to us that they’re not implementing all the sanctions and there’s some evidence they may be frustrating some of the sanctions,” Tillerson said aboard his aircraft while returning from Vancouver.

China did not attend the Vancouver meeting, where 20 nations agreed to step up sanctions pressure on the North, but Tillerson highlighted Beijing’s role.

“We have never had Chinese support for sanctions like we’re getting now,” he said. “Russia’s a slightly different issue, but the Chinese have leaned in hard on the North Koreans.”

Asked whether there was a humanitarian concern that sanctions were hurting ordinary North Koreans, he said: “That’s a choice the regime’s making. The regime gets to decide how they allocate their available resources.”

“We are not going to take any responsibility for the fact that he (North Korean leader Kim Jong Un) is choosing to make his own people suffer,” Tillerson said.

Asked if he was concerned that South Korea might resume some humanitarian aid to North Korea as part of the resumption of North-South talks this month, thereby weakening sanctions, Tillerson said: “Countries will have to make their own choice, but we would be very skeptical that aid that goes into the country will necessarily relieve the suffering of the people.”

Tillerson said that, while North Korea had a record of seeking to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies through “charm offensives,” Washington was supportive of the North-South dialogue.

Tillerson said of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: “He knows how to reach me, if he wants to talk. But he’s got to tell me he wants to talk. We’re not going to chase him.”

He said he was confident the sides would eventually get to the negotiating table and he wanted North Korea to know that, when that happened, the United States had “very strong military options standing behind me.”

The Trump administration has said repeatedly that all options are available, including military ones, in forcing North Korea to give up its development of nuclear missiles capable of reaching the United States, although it prefers a diplomatic solution.