ISLAMABAD, Oct 13: While Pakistan has ‘deplored’ North Korea for conducting a nuclear bomb test, it is opposed to any international sanctions against the country that would hurt its people.

“We are not in favour of sanctions that would adversely affect the people of Korea,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told Dawn when asked about Pakistan’s position on the question under discussion at the UN Security Council.

“We would like to see resumption of six-party talks at the earliest,” the spokesperson emphasised. Pakistan has consistently supported the mechanism of six-party talks.

Traditionally too, Pakistan has been opposed to instrument of sanctions and coercive measures against countries. Instead it has favoured the process of dialogue and negotiations for addressing concerns.

On Monday Pakistan termed the testing of a nuclear bomb by North Korea as a destabilizing development for the region and expressed the hope that all the countries in the region would exercise restraint.

Pakistan fears that the North Korean move may have a chain reaction in the region.

Soon after North Korea declared its intention of conducting a nuclear test Pakistan had urged it to desist from introducing nuclear weapons in the Korean Peninsula.

“It is regrettable that the DPRK chose to ignore the advice of the international community not to test a nuclear weapons device,” the Foreign Office spokesperson noted after North Korea went ahead with the nuclear test.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has ruled out any link between the North Korean nuclear test and Dr A.Q. Khan network as has the US government.

Unlike Pakistan and like India, North Korea is believed to have a plutonium-based nuclear programme. Pakistan’s programme is mainly uranium-based.—Q.A.