Donald Trump Puts Russia In Spotlight, Saying It Holds Key To North Korean Crisis

U.S. President Donald Trump accused Russia on Wednesday of helping North Korea sidestep international sanctions, as concerns grow in Washington that Pyongyang is getting closer to being able to launch a missile at the United States.

“Russia is not helping us at all with North Korea,” Trump said during an exclusive interview with Reuters. “What China is helping us with, Russia is denting. In other words, Russia is making up for some of what China is doing.”

Russia and China, both bordering North Korea along its northern and western sides, respectively, did not use their veto power as permanent members of the UN Security Council, when the body tabled a package of sanctions on December 23. The sanctions were approved unanimously by all 15 members of the council.

Sanctions included a ban on oil imports and blocking North Koreans from working abroad for two years. It also deprived Pyongyang of importing all natural gas liquids and condensates, as well as exporting its textile, coal and sea-based products. Around 90 percent of North Korea’s state revenues come from textile exports and remittances from immigrants working overseas.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was more descript than Trump, when speaking to journalists on Wednesday on board his plane that was traveling back to Washington from a meeting held in Vancouver a day earlier. Tillerson said Russia is not complying with all sanctions imposed on North Korea, in particular, those relating to fuel supplies, Reuters reported.

"It is obvious to us that they [Russia] do not apply all sanctions, and there is some evidence that they can prevent certain sanctions," Tillerson said.

The U.S. claims that Russia had dispatched fuel tankers to North Korea as early as September, and on at least three occasions in recent months.

All accusations from U.S. officials were immediately and vehemently denied by Moscow.

"These accusations of the U.S. are absolutely groundless," Igor Morgulov, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister told TASS news agency on Thursday. "Russia fulfills its obligations under the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council in full. The relevant UN sanctions committees do not make any claims against us.

North Korea has had world leaders, and the U.S. especially, on edge for about a year due to its repeated missile tests. While some of its tests have failed, others have proven that North Korea has been developing technologies that could at some point allow it to launch a rocket towards the U.S. mainland, a claim North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has made multiple times.

In 2017, Pyongyang conducted four nuclear missile test launches, the last of which took place in November and used North Korea’s homemade Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile. The missile was reportedly able to carry a nuclear warhead and put the entire territory of the U.S. within its reach.

Amidst the escalation of tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, analysts see China and the Caspian region’s Russia as a key reigning in the Kim regime.

Russia is believed to have relatively good relations with Kim Jong Un, whom Russian President Vladimir Putin called a “shrewd and mature politician” last week.

Putin calls for a “return to dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, stop intimidating it and find ways to solve these problems peacefully.”

Russia is North Korea’s second largest trading partner, after China, with $100 million annual trade turnover.

“Russia is a key strategic player in northeast Asia, borders on North Korea, has long experience in dealing with various Pyongyang regimes and provides goods and services vital to the North’s survival and well-being,” Artyom Lukin, a professor at the Far East Federal Institute of Russia wrote in a HuffPost article.

“The country could contribute significantly to international deliberations on how to restrain the North’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. Yet two players — the United States and China — have more or less monopolized approaches to dealing with the North,” wrote Lukin.

“As a member of P5+1 group, Russia played a generally helpful role in the successful negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. Given its leverage with Pyongyang, Moscow can have an even more substantial part in resolving the North Korea conundrum.”

In May of last year, Putin cancelled 90 percent of North Korea’s $11 billion debt to Russia, which is nearly half of the North’s gross domestic product of $28 billion. Russia agreed to have the remaining 10 percent used for joint projects between the two countries. Pyongyang’s response was to increase the number of North Korean workers to 50,000 in Russia, mostly working in timber warehouses in Russia’s Far East.