The US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Thursday that Russia wants to lift banking restrictions on North Korea put in place to try to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear program, but the United States would not let that happen.

“What they’re looking for is to lift banking restrictions,” Haley said after a closed-door security council meeting on North Korea sanctions also attended by Russia’s envoy.

She added that Russia had not followed the restrictions appropriately.

“So now we know what their agenda is, we know exactly why they’re trying to do it and we’re not going to let it happen.”

Meanwhile, she told reporters that North Korean officials postponed a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that had been scheduled for this week because they were not ready.

“North Korea said they needed to postpone it for whatever reason,” she said.

“Secretary Pompeo was ready to come. We continue to stand ready to talk but I don’t think that there was some major issue. I have talked with the administration and basically what we’re looking at is they postponed it because they weren’t ready.”

Source: Reuters