North Korean scientists were accepted as recently as last year into an international nuclear research institute in Russia, a former Japanese member of a U.N. sanctions committee panel has said.
Several North Korean scientists worked at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, which has 18 members including North Korea, until early 2015, before the country was suspended from its membership due to its failure to pay membership fees, according to Katsuhisa Furukawa, who served as a member of the expert panel, which was set up under the U.N. Security Council, until April this year.
Security Council resolutions prohibit all nuclear-related activities by North Korea, “but Russia and the institute have explained that the institute conducts basic research, which has nothing to do with nuclear weapons,” Furukawa, 49, said.
“But I think it was a clear violation of the Security Council resolutions given that the institute certainly conducts ‘nuclear’ research,” he added.
North Korea’s representative at the Russian institute was Atomic Energy Industry Minister Ri Je Son, who is on the U.N. sanctions list, Furukawa noted.
“Russia and the institute have explained that Ri has not come to Russia since he was included in the sanctions list,” Furukawa said. “But we couldn’t confirm this, as we were not given access to (Russian) entry records.”
The Security Council is now negotiating a fresh resolution against North Korea, in response to Pyongyang’s fifth nuclear test on Sept. 9.
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