The foreign ministers of the United States, Australia, India and Japan called for all U.N. member states to abide by U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions barring any arms transfer involving North Korea during their talks in New York on Friday.
The top diplomats of the "Quad" forum made the call after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a rare summit at a Russian spaceport last week, deepening concerns about a potential arms deal between the two isolated regimes.
"We stress the importance of addressing proliferation of nuclear and missile technologies related to North Korea in the region and beyond," they said in a readout posted on the State Department's website.
"(We) urge all U.N. Member States to abide by the related UNSCRs, including the prohibition on the transfer to North Korea or procurement from North Korea of all arms and related materiel," they added.
They did not name Russia in the wording, but the statement was seen as referring to the possibility of Pyongyang and Moscow engaging in potential arms transactions amid the war in Ukraine.
The ministers also condemned the North's "destabilizing" launches using ballistic missile technology and its continued pursuit of nuclear weapons in violation of UNSC resolutions.
Source: Yonhap News Agency