Treaty Binds Moscow to Help North Korea, Russian Official Says

A senior Russian official said Friday that Moscow would be bound by a treaty with Pyongyang to help North Korea, which is at the center of a dispute over its nuclear program, if it were attacked.

“We have informed North Koreans as well as South Koreans and the United States that Russia, as the country which is a legitimate successor of the Soviet Union, is carrying obligations from treaties which are still in force,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Panov, a former ambassador to Seoul.

“It is natural that if we say tomorrow that we will not follow our obligations taken from the Soviet Union, there will be (a) mess. . . . Russia will always help North Korea if North Korea is unprovokedly attacked. This we say by ourselves. This is our own decision; it will be taken according to our legislation, our constitution,” he said.

The U.N. Security Council, including Russia and China, last week issued a mildly worded statement calling on Pyongyang to allow unhampered inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

But Panov proposed an international conference to resolve the issue.