The toughest UN Security Council sanctions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to date were intended to pressure Pyongyang to come back to the denuclearization talks, U.S. Department of State spokesman Mark Toner said Monday.
"The goal of this UN Security Council resolution that was passed last week is to apply increasing pressure on the elite within the DPRK, to encourage them to come back to denuclearization talks, via the Six-Party Talks," Toner told reporters during a news briefing.
He noted that not only the U.S., but the entire international community is concerned by DPRK's recent activity, which continue to show disregard to these concerns and "no willingness to come back to table to talk the denuclearization."
Toner stressed that the U.S. will continue the pressure on DPRK "with the aspiration trying to get them back to talk about denuclearization".
The UN Security Council last week unanimously adopted a resolution to impose tougher sanctions on the DPRK to curb the country's nuclear and missile programs. Council members also called for an early resumption of the Six-Party Talks.
The Six-Party Talks, a multilateral mechanism, is believed as a practical way to realize denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. It was launched in 2003 but were stalled in December 2008. The DPRK quit the talks in April 2009.
The six countries in the talk are DPRK, South Korea, China, Japan, the U.S. and Russia.
China has also recently proposed a "parallel-track approach" to address the issue, namely, working to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and replace the Korean armistice with a peace agreement at the same time.
