Moscow pledged to assist Seoul in dealing with N.K. nukes

South Korea and Russia agreed Sunday to make joint efforts to tackle North Korea's nuclear threat through peaceful means, a South Korean vice foreign minister said. The two countries also agreed on the need to draw up a compromise plan that would satisfy the North's demands for a written security guarantee and non-aggression treaty from the United States and Washington's demands for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programs Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said after his talks with his South Korean counterpart Kim Han-kyung Sunday, that Russia will make joint efforts to ease the crisis and persuade the parties to sit down for talks. "The slide to unacceptable actions must be stopped," Losyukov was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency Interfax. "Obviously, our contacts with North Korean colleagues will be intensified." He noted it is important to find other means that could lead North Korea to give up on nuclear program without feeling threatened, calling for U.S. flexible response. Continuing that North Korea there's certain principles to issuing threatening tones of its own, he reasoned the North works by logic on its own. "We cant simply blame North Korea for everything and regard rest of the involved parties innocent." Deputy Minister Kim also met with head of Arms Control Georgi Mamedov the same day and exchanged opinions on recent crisis in Korean Peninsula Kim has reportedly called for Russia to persuade North Korean leaders to change their mind on re-operating nuclear facilities and abide by 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework. In additional Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will also be discussing on North Korean's nuclear program at the summit meeting slated for this Friday, disclosed sources from both countries. The Foreign Ministry of Russia announced French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin will be dispatched to Moscow for similar discussion on Wednesday. Separately North Korea is expected to greet Morris Strong, a senior aide to UN Secretary General Kofi Anan to extend official invitation to North Korea's no.2 man Kim Yong-nam, to Davos Forum, scheduled from February 23-28 in order to mediate a solution for North's nuclear issue, revealed a source Sunday.

by staff reporter
January 06, 2003