NATO urges trading partners to step up pressure on North Korea
BRUSSELS - NATO urged all countries to step up efforts to enforce sanctions on North Korea and stop its weapons tests - an appeal that diplomats said was aimed at the reclusive state's trading partners, suspected of holding back on penalties.
All 29 ambassadors of the US-led military alliance issued the statement as world powers sought a common response to North Korea's sixth and largest nuclear bomb test, amid fears that more were on their way.
"It is now imperative that all nations implement more thoroughly and transparently existing UN sanctions and make further efforts to apply decisive pressure to convince the DPRK regime to abandon its current threatening and destabilising path," the statement read, referring to North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were concerns that existing sanctions on North Korea have not been fully enforced by Pyongyang's few remaining trading partners, namely China and several African nations.
"China, African, other Asian countries continue to trade with North Korea. Our governments are saying to Guinea-Bissau, to Malaysia, to China that they need to tighten their sanctions enforcement," said a NATO diplomat involved in discussions about how to resolve the North Korea crisis.
