Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov began his stay in Pyongyang with visiting the Kim Il Sung Mausoleum on Thursday. He made an entry in the mourning book.
After that the RF foreign minister laid a wreath at the Liberation Monument to the Soviet soldiers.
Talks with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun are beginning. It was earlier reported with reference to informed sources that the Russian diplomacy head might meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on April 23.
The main issue of Lavrov’s discussions in Pyongyang is expected to be the future of the six-sided talks on the Korean Peninsula’s nuclear problem. The sides, in particular, will discuss prospects for the settlement of the situation caused by the North Korean decision to withdraw from the six-sided nuclear talks after the UN Security Council condemned the recent launch by Pyongyang of a powerful rocket. Russia has repeatedly called on North Korea to return to the dialogue in the interests of strengthening stability in Northeast Asia.
After the UN Security Council’s presidential statement denouncing the launch of the North Korean rocket Pyongyang expelled from the country inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It stated the intention to resume the suspended operation of its only nuclear reactor at Yongbyon capable of producing weapons grade plutonium.
Touching upon the Korean nuclear problem recently in an interview to Itar-Tass, the Russian foreign minister stressed that “all the sides should fulfil the agreements reached.” “There are obligations that North Korea assumed, there are obligations assumed by the other participants in the six-nation talks,” he recalled. “Russia has totally fulfilled all its obligations, we want the other countries to fulfil their obligations as well,” Lavrov stated.
The Russian foreign minister last visited Pyongyang in 2004.
