N. Korea unwilling to come back to six-way talks: Russian minister

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with more comments, details)
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has no intention to rejoin the six-way
talks on its nuclear program, but related nations should continue efforts to
persuade Pyongyang to come back to the negotiating table, the visiting Russian
foreign minister said Friday.
"The situation is very difficult," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a joint
press conference with his South Korean counterpart, Yu Myung-hwan, after their
meeting. "But related nations need to resolve this matter calmly, not
emotionally. The top priority is to restart the six-way talks."
"North Korea has no intention to return to the six-way talks yet," the foreign
minister said through a translator. "We need to create conditions for the
resumption of the six-way talks. We delivered our position on how to make such
conditions to North Korea,"
Lavrov arrived in Seoul earlier in the day after a two-day trip to Pyongyang on a
mission to help revive the stalled disarmament talks involving the two Koreas,
the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
The minister was the first high-level foreign official to visit North Korea since
its April 5 rocket launch and the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of the
launch. The council's presidential statement calls on members to tighten
sanctions against North Korean entities that proliferate weapons of mass
destruction, strengthening punitive measures imposed on Pyongyang after its
missile and nuclear tests in 2006.
Lavrov said imposing sanctions on North Korea is "not constructive," although his
government approved the Security Council's statement.
He did not elaborate, but he said his country proposed that North Korea use its
territory for a satellite launch in line with Moscow's policy of cooperating with
other nations' peaceful space programs.
The minister added that he urged Pyongyang to rejoin the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty during his meetings with the North's No. 2 leader, Kim
Yong-nam, and top diplomat Pak Ui-chun. He said he did not meet the North's top
leader, Kim Jong-il.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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