A United Nations official reportedly said on Monday that the possible deployment of North Korean construction workers to reconstruction projects in pro-Russian breakaway states in Ukraine is a violation of UN sanctions against the North.

According to Radio Free Asia, Eric Penton-Voak of the UN Security Council's panel of experts on North Korea issued the position, voicing disapproval of remarks by Russian Ambassador to Pyongyang Alexander Matsegora.

The Russian envoy said earlier on Monday in an interview with a Russian media outlet that North Korea and the Donetsk People's Republic(DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic(LPR) in Ukraine's Donbas region have broad prospects for cooperation.

He added that highly qualified North Korean construction workers will be a tremendous help in restoring the destroyed infrastructure and industrial facilities in the region.

The UN official, however, said it would be a violation of UN sanctions if North Korean builders work in the Donbas region as the Russian envoy said.

The official added that providing equipment produced by firms from the Donbas region to North Korea, as the Russian ambassador also mentioned, would be a further violation of UN sanctions.

The UN official criticized the Russian envoy for encouraging the violation of sanctions unanimously adopted by the Security Council.

UN Security Council Resolution 2397, adopted following the North’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile in 2017, demands all North Korean workers overseas be repatriated to the North by the end of 2019.