MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Talking about the suspension of Russian deliveries of oil products to North Korea as part of sanctions policy is pointless, as their current level is already minimal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.
"The Russian President [Vladimir Putin] repeatedly, including at a press conference in Beijing, said that the volume of trade and economic cooperation and the supply of oil and oil products to Korea is at an insignificant level, at a meager level, so in this case it is hardly reasonable to continue talking about this [the suspension]. There are no significant quantities there," Peskov told reporters in a conference call.
Peskov stressed that Moscow is opposing the idea of driving Pyongyang into a corner with sanctions pressure.
"Pyongyang needs to be involved in dialogue, conditions must be created in which Pyongyang will feel secure, and that will allow us to search for solutions [for the crisis]," the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Putin met earlier on the day with the South Korean leader at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok. Despite the Kremlin spokesman telling Sputnik that today's meeting wasn't related to additional negotiations in relation to the situation on North Korea, Putin's aide said that Moscow and Seoul have reached a broader consensus on the issue.
The aide also noted that during the meeting Putin had described in detail the specific proposals, which were included in the roadmap for the crisis resolution, proposed by China and Russia.
"Apart from power aspect, [Putin] talked a lot about how to embark upon a negotiation process, about what could be done," Ushakov said.
He reiterated Putin's words that the economic sanctions could not completely hinder North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, stressing that through unilateral sanctions "we would not achieve what we want."
