Russia to do utmost for resumption of six-party talks on North Korea - speaker

ST PETERSBURG, October 18. /TASS/. Russia will do everything possible so that the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program can be resumed, although Pyongyang is not ready for them yet, Speaker of the Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Valentina Matviyenko said on Wednesday. Matviyenko reminded that on the sidelines of the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Assembly she had held talks with both delegations of North and South Koreas. At the meeting with South Korean lawmakers, they voiced readiness to restart talks with North Korea, she added at a news conference held after the 137th IPU Assembly held in St. Petersburg. "North Korean lawmakers said they were not ready for talks yet. This is the stance of the country’s both lawmakers and government. [They] justified their position by explaining that their nuclear weapons are a prerequisite for defending their security. It is the only thing that preserves their sovereignty and they will use the weapons for defense, not for an attack," Matviyenko said. "Tensions need to be lowered and everyone should sit at the negotiation table, including the international six-party talks," she said. "For our part, we will do our best for this to happen." Ahead of the negotiations, North Korea "should be guaranteed security and sovereignty," the Federation Council’s speaker said. "A degree of distrust between North and South Koreas, between North Korea and the United States have raised to such a level that today there are no conditions for normal talks," she said. "There is no way out, but talks," Matviyenko said. "Until North Korea is not ready to hold them, we must do our best to get them to sit at the negotiation table. Hence any other scenario will trigger a world-wide crisis." The Russian top lawmaker reminded of the Russian-Chinese proposal aimed to lower tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Russia and China urged both Pyongyang to stop its nuclear and missile tests and the United States along with South Korea to halt military exercise. "Russia took a firm stance as we have been against enlargement of the nuclear countries’ club and we support only the [nuclear weapons] non-proliferation agreement," Matviyenko added. "We think it as utterly crucial to coerce North Korea into signing a non-proliferation agreement." "The work is not going to be simple. It will be hard, but there is no other way out," she concluded. The situation on the Korean Peninsula has dramatically aggravated in the recent months following Pyongyang’s missile tests. The United Nations Security Council has adopted two resolutions toughening international sanctions against North Korea. Moreover, Pyongyang announced its plans to conduct a nuclear test in the Pacific and US President Donald Trump threatened that the US would wipe off that country. Six-way talks on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, involving two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the US were suspended in 2008 at the initiative of Pyongyang. Over the recent months, some countries, including Russia and South Korea have spoken in favor of restart of a dialog in the six-party format. Read more