Russian ministry: No grounds to halt oil supplies to North Korea

MOSCOW, Jul 26 (PRIME) -- There are no formal grounds to suspend oil supplies to North Korea and Washington is well aware of it, Artyom Kozhin, the Foreign Ministry’s deputy official spokesman, said at a briefing on Thursday.

According to the quotas established by the last resolution of the U.N. Security Council, North Korea may receive around 540,000 tonnes of crude oil and oil products annually via a pipeline from China and slightly over 60,000 tonnes of oil products from Russia, China and other countries.

The combined volume of supplies has so far accounted only for a quarter of the threshold amount, Kozhin said.

“So, there are no formal grounds for suspension of oil product exports and Washington knows and understands it well,” he said.

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