U.S. Secretary of state Michael Pompeo

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SINGAPORE, 4 August. /TASS/. The United States hopes that Russia will respect the resolutions of the UN security Council against the DPRK. This was stated to journalists on Saturday in Singapore, U.S. Secretary of state Michael Pompeo, commenting on the publication, which States that in the period from September 2017 to the present time thousands of DPRK nationals have received work permits in Russia, “despite the UN ban”.

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“We intend to verify this information,” he said. “We hope that Moscow will abide by the UN resolutions, and intend to discuss this issue,” said Pompeo. At the same time, he noted that “possible actions against countries that violate the resolution .”

Previously, the newspaper The Wall Street Journal published an article alleging that during the period from September 2017 to the present time thousands of DPRK nationals have received work permits in Russia, “despite the UN ban”.

The official representative of Russian foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said Friday at a briefing that the issuance of work permits in Russia to citizens of the DPRK who signed contracts prior to the adoption in September 2017 for new sanctions against Pyongyang, is not contrary to the resolutions of the UN Security Council.

In September 2017 the UN security Council adopted resolution 2375 in response to another nuclear weapons test conducted by Pyongyang on 3 September 2017. The resolution imposed a ban on the granting of work permits to citizens of the DPRK, to purchase from the DPRK textiles, on the supply to natural gas and its condensates, the creation of joint ventures with legal entities from North Korea. Also, there were restrictions on the export of refined petroleum products – no more than 2 million barrels per year (starting in 2018).

Earlier on Friday, Reuters reported that the US asked the UN security Council with a request for the inclusion in the sanctions list living in Russia the banker of the DPRK, commercial Bank “Agrosoyuz”, registered in the Russian Federation, as well as one Chinese and one North Korean organization in respect of which earlier Friday, the United States has imposed restrictive measures.