Pyongyang earlier announced that it had conducted an underground nuclear test in defiance of a UN Security Council statement urging it to give up nuclear test plans and return to disarmament talks, and earlier international warnings.
"The U.S. may propose imposing sanctions [against North Korea]," Vitaly Churkin said.
"Russia has condemned North Korea's nuclear test, and believes that it should immediately return to its nuclear-free status and resume the six-nation talks," he said, reiterating a statement made earlier by President Vladimir Putin.
"Russia absolutely condemns the test in North Korea, which has inflicted great damage to the non-proliferation process," Putin said, and urged the Communist regime to return to the six-nation talks.
North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States have been engaged in talks on the nuclear issue since 2003, discussing aid and security guarantees for the secretive regime in exchange for a renunciation of its nuclear program. But talks stalled last November over Pyongyang's demands that the U.S. lift sanctions imposed on it for its alleged involvement in counterfeiting and other illegal activities.
