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| ▲ Vedant Patel, deputy spokesperson for the Department of State, is seen speaking during a press briefing at the department in Washington on April 6, 2023 in this captured image. (Yonhap) |
US-N Korea-Security Council
China, others have obligation under U.N. resolutions to engage N. Korea: State Dept.
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, April 6 (Yonhap) -- China and any other countries that have a relationship with North Korea have an obligation to encourage Pyongyang to halt its provocative actions, a state department spokesperson said Thursday, amid reports that the North is prepared to conduct a nuclear test at anytime.
Vedant Patel, deputy spokesperson for the state department, added the U.S. will continue to implement United Nations Security Council sanctions on North Korea to prevent further escalation.
"We have been very consistent that countries that have influence and relationships with the DPRK have a responsibility to engage with them and to encourage them to cease their dangerous, reckless and destabilizing activities that have the potential to impact not just across the Indo-Pacific but the region more broadly," he told a daily press briefing, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"We believe that needs to be a case under the auspices of the U.N. Security Council as there are a number of U.N. Security Council sanctions in place as it relates to (the) DPRK," he added when asked if the U.S. had any means to pressure China, a close neighbor of North Korea, to stop Pyongyang from conducting what will be its seventh nuclear test.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), earlier said indications of activity have been detected at North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site in what he called a "deeply troubling" development, also noting that the site "remains prepared to support a nuclear test."
North Korea conducted its sixth and last nuclear test in September 2017.
Patel declined to comment when asked if China may have enough influence over Pyongyang to stop the country from conducting a nuclear test.
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