N. Korea reconfirms to Russia decision to quit nuke talks

(ATTN: CHANGES headline; UPDATES throughout with N. Korean foreign ministry's
announcement)
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) -- Top North Korean officials reaffirmed their country's
decision to quit the six-way nuclear talks during a meeting with the visiting
Russian foreign minister, Pyongyang's foreign ministry said Friday.

During his two-day stay in the North that began Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov met with the communist nation's number two leader Kim Yong-nam and its
foreign minister Pak Ui-chun, a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the
North's official Korean Central News Agency. It did not specify whether Lavrov
met the North's supreme leader Kim Jong-il.
"The Russian side reconfirmed its stand against U.N. sanctions against the DPRK
and paid attention to the DPRK's stand that there is no need to hold the
six-party talks any longer," the unidentified spokesman said, using the acronym
for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The North announced last week that it will quit six-way disarmament talks and
switch on its nearly-disabled nuclear facilities in Yongbyon to protest the
U.N.'s condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch. North Korea claimed it had
attempted to send a satellite into orbit but the U.S. and its allies considered
it as a cover for a long-range missile test.
"Both sides recognized that a satellite launch is a sovereign right of each
country," the spokesman added.
Lavrov, the first high-level foreign official to visit North Korea since the
rocket launch, reportedly tried to coax Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.
The latest round of the six-party talks, also involving the U.S., China, and
Japan., were held in December but produced no fresh agreement due to disputes
over how to inspect the North's nuclear sites.
He was skeptical of imminent progress, however.
"We don't expect any immediate breakthroughs. It's a difficult process," Lavrov
was quoted as saying by Russia's official news agency after meeting with his
North Korean counterpart Pak Ui-chun on Thursday. "We should not yield to
emotions, hopefully we will be able to overcome this crisis."
Lavrov was to fly into Seoul later Friday from Pyongyang.
"Minister Lavrov is scheduled to arrive in Seoul in the afternoon and hold talks
with Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan in the evening," a South Korean foreign
ministry official said. The ministers will also have a joint press conference
after the talks, he added. Lavrov plans to pay a courtesy call on President Lee
Myung-bak on Saturday before his departure.
Lavrov's trip to the two Koreas comes after the U.N.'s move to blacklist a set of
North Korean firms suspected of being involved in the trade of missiles and
weapons of mass destruction.
The U.N. Security Council's presidential statement against the North's rocket
launch calls for a sanctions committee to draw up the list of North Korean
entities by April 24. If it fails to meet the deadline, the 15-member council
will step in to finalize the list by April 30.
The U.S. and Japan presented their own lists of about a dozen North Korean firms
to face an asset freeze, but China and Russia want the number of targeted
companies to be smaller, according to U.N. sources.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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