Putin condemns Korean nuclear weapons test
President Vladimir Putin today condemned the North Korean nuclear weapons test, Russian news agencies reported, as Russia demanded North Korea rein in its nuclear programme.
“Russia certainly condemns the test conducted by North Korea,” the Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying. “Enormous damage has been done to the process of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the world.”
The Foreign Ministry demanded that Pyongyang “immediately take steps to return to the regime of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and to the six-nation talks” over its nuclear programme, ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said.
North Korea has “ignored the unanimous will of the international community” by conducting the test, he said, but Russia called on all nations with an interest in the issue to “show restraint and self-possession in this difficult situation,” according to a ministry statement.
Kamynin said Russia would express the same position in the UN Security Council.
Regardless of any motivation, the test can only deepen tension on the Korean peninsula, threaten regional peace and security and undermine the nuclear non-proliferation regime, Kamynin said. Russia had urged Pyongyang not to conduct a nuclear test.
Interfax, citing an unnamed diplomatic source in Moscow, said that the North Korean Foreign Ministry had informed the Russian ambassador in Pyongyang about the test two hours before it was conducted. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
