Putin Rejects Cutting Off Oil to North Korea

Putin Rejects Cutting Off Oil to North Korea

President Moon Jae-in, left, of South Korea and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Tuesday, at an economic summit meeting in Vladivostok, Russia. Mr. Moon asked Mr. Putin on Wednesday to support a proposed oil embargo on North Korea. 

North Korea has been getting most of its oil from China. But it has been trying to increase imports from Russia as an alternative source of energy for its military, as well as for its decrepit industries, amid signs that Beijing is growing impatient with the North’s nuclear adventurism, South Korean analysts said.

During a meeting on the sidelines of an economic summit conference in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok on Wednesday, Mr. Moon asked Mr. Putin to support the proposed oil embargo. But Mr. Putin said that sanctions and pressure would not persuade North Korea to give up nuclear weapons, said Yoon Young-chan, a spokesman for Mr. Moon.

Stopping oil exports to the country would instead hurt ordinary North Koreans by disrupting hospitals and other civilian facilities, Mr. Yoon quoted Mr. Putin as saying. Mr. Putin said Russia exported less than 40,000 tons of oil a year to North Korea.

Despite his opposition to cutting off oil exports, Mr. Putin said North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests were a flagrant violation of United Nationsresolutions.

But “we should not act out of emotions and push North Korea into a dead end,” Mr. Putin said, according to dispatches from South Korean reporters. “We must act with calm and avoid steps that could raise tensions.”

His remarks came on the same day that the South Korean Defense Ministry said that the United States military planned to complete the deployment of an advanced missile-defense system in South Korea on Thursday.

The deployment of that system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or Thaad, is vehemently opposed by China, which argues that it will exacerbate tensions with North Korea and could undermine China’s own nuclear deterrent by giving the United States another means to monitor its missiles.

In April, the United States installed the radar and two of the six interceptor-missile launchers of the Thaad battery on an abandoned hilltop golf course in Seongju, 135 miles southeast of Seoul, the capital. The battery became operational immediately.

On Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said the remaining four launchers would be installed on Thursday in response to “North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile threats.”

Those threats have prompted both Beijing and Moscow to agree on increasingly tougher sanctions against North Korea, most recently backing a Security Council ban of the country’s coal, iron, iron ore, lead and seafood exports. But the two countries opposed any measures that could destabilize North Korea, a stance Mr. Putin reaffirmed to Mr. Moon on Wednesday.

They said that sanctions had so far done little to stop North Korea from increasing its nuclear and missile capabilities, and that the country remained determined to build a nuclear arsenal despite President Trump’s threatening to rain down “fire and fury” on it if it continued threatening the United States.

Mr. Moon himself has been a proponent of dialogue with North Korea. But as North Korea has escalated tensions recently with a series of missile tests, he has pushed for tougher new sanctions, hoping that they would force the North to return to the negotiating table.

September 6, 2017 5:39 PM

LEOMINSTER (CBS) – A fight over internet bandwidth ended with a young man killing his older brother in Leominster, investigators said.

Tim Record, 20, was ordered held without bail Wednesday after pleading not guilty to the murder of his 23-year-old brother Nathan Tuesday evening.

Police were called to the family’s home on Lakeshore Drive for a report of a stabbing just before 7:30 p.m.

The Record family home on Lakeshore Drive (WBZ-TV)

According to court documents, witnesses told police the brothers were arguing over the use of digital devices which overwhelmed their internet bandwidth and that led to a fight.  They claimed Nathan punched Tim in the face and head and went to his room.

Tim Record then grabbed knives from the kitchen and stabbed Nathan in the chest, authorities said.

Nathan Record was rushed to the UMass Health Alliance Hospital in Leominster where he died.

Tim Record (WBZ-TV)

Tim Record was brought to the Leominster police station where he was questioned and later arrested.

He was wearing handcuffs and shackles at his arraignment in Leominster District Court Wednesday.

“I would say the family’s in mourning at this point, that‘s probably the best way to describe their situation. Very sad, very tragic,” Record’s attorney, Blake Rubin, told reporters.

Tim Record is due back in court October 6.

Posted on September 7, 2017 at 7:17 AM