Russian FM to visit Pyongyang amid growing regional tensions

(ATTN: UPDATES with IAEA chief's comments in paras 10-12)
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, April 20 (Yonhap) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit
Pyongyang this week, a trip that may help the outside world understand North
Korea's intentions behind its renewed nuclear threats after a rocket launch early
this month, diplomatic sources here said Monday.

"He is expected to visit North Korea starting on April 22 or 23. The Russian
government is in final consultations with the North to fix the schedule," a
source said, asking not to be named. "The purpose of the trip is to discuss not
only the bilateral ties but also the aftermath of the rocket launch and the
six-way talks (on the North's nuclear program). The minister is likely to call
for the North to return to the talks."
Lavrov hopes to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, but whether that will be
possible is still unclear, the source added.
South Korean government officials were cautious about reports of Lavrov's trip
before Moscow's announcement, but they noted Russia's potential to play a
mediating role between the North and the United States for the resumption of the
six-way talks. Moscow has maintained close ties with Pyongyang dating back to the
Soviet era.
Russia chairs the working group meeting on the Northeast Asia peace and security
mechanism, one of the subgroups under the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing
North Korea.
Along with China, it blocked a push by Japan and the U.S. for a U.N. Security
Council resolution against the North's April 5 rocket launch. The council instead
adopted a non-biding presidential statement condemning the action.
"If Minister Lavrov visits North Korea this week, it would be meaningful
especially due to its timing," a Seoul foreign ministry official said. "We are
considering issuing a commentary on it after the Russian government's
announcement."
To protest the U.N. reaction, North Korea said last week it would quit the
six-way talks and reverse the disabling of its main nuclear facilities in
Yongbyon.
It also expelled U.N. and U.S. nuclear experts from the site, removing seals and
surveillance cameras as a first step towards putting its threats into action.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
said it could take only several months for the North to reactivate the
plutonium-producing reactor in Yongbyon.
"It could be a question of months," he told reporters in Beijing.
He expressed hope that the six-way talks will restart in the near future and that
his inspectors will be allowed back into the country.
The North's backlash against the U.N. is expected to grow stronger, with a U.N.
sanctions committee set to work out a list of North Korean companies to face
sanctions under Resolution 1718, which was adopted after the communist nation's
missile and nuclear tests in 2006.
The new presidential statement calls for the 15-member committee to agree on the
list by April 24.
Japan and the U.S. have already submitted to the committee their own lists of
entities whose assets they want to freeze. Washington named 11 entities including
trading houses and banks while Tokyo listed 14, including those chosen by the
U.S., according to U.N. officials.
The sanctions committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday (New York time) to
discuss the list.
Meanwhile, South and North Korea plan to hold their first government talks
Tuesday since President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul last year at a joint
industrial complex in Kaesong, just north of the land-mine strewn Demilitarized
Zone.
Officials here said the North wants to discuss issues related to the inter-Korean
cooperation project.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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