The top U. S. diplomat traveled to New York to deliver an explicit rebuke of China and Russia and urged them to cut ties with the hermit king…
Russia defended its use of North Korean laborers and told Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at a Friday United Nations Security Council meeting that the workers aren’t treated like slaves.
“I’d like to say to the distinguished secretary of state that the North Korean workers aren’t working in Russia in ‘slave-like conditions,’” said Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian envoy to the United Nations.
That was a direct response to Tillerson’s comments minutes earlier, when the top U. S. diplomat traveled to New York to deliver an explicit rebuke of China and Russia. Tillerson urged both countries to cut ties with North Korea, citing the need to pressure the regime into abandoning its nuclear weapons program before the U. S. is forced to take military action.
One of the cuts Tillerson urged was an end to allowing North Koreans to work in their countries.
“Continuing to allow North Korean laborers to toil in slave-like conditions inside Russia in exchange for wages used to fund nuclear weapons programs calls into question Russia’s dedication as a partner for peace,” Tilllerson said . “Similarly, as Chinese crude oil flows to North Korean refineries, the United States questions China’s commitment to solving an issue that has serious implications for the security of its own citizens.”
Nebenzia rejected that charge.
