N.Korea commits to denuclearization - Russian envoy
(AP)
Updated: 2006-10-15 21:48
SEOUL, South Korea - Russia's nuclear envoy said Sunday that North
Korean officials expressed their commitment to denuclearization after the
North's reported atomic test, and Moscow and Seoul pledged to try reviving
stalled international arms talks.
"I was repeatedly told in Pyongyang
that they are for the continuation of the process. They are for the
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Alexander Alexeyev said after meeting Seoul's top nuclear negotiator, Chun
Yung-woo.
Alexeyev was in Pyongyang last week - the first known foreign
official to travel there since North Korea's claimed October 9 nuclear test
explosion.
The Russian diplomat said he wasn't carrying any specific
message from the North.
The North test-launched a series of missiles in
July, and last week claimed it conducted its first-ever successful nuclear test.
In response, the U.N. Security Council on Saturday passed a unanimous
resolution imposing sanctions on the communist country.
Alexeyev's visit
was part of a series of diplomatic initiatives, planned for the coming week,
aimed at defusing the crisis.
The North has refused since last year to
attend nuclear talks that also include China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the
United States, demanding that Washington first halt a campaign aimed at cutting
off the country from the international financial system.
Seoul and
Moscow agreed to pursue the resumption of the deadlocked forum, known as the
six-party talks, Alexeyev said.
"We both agreed we should work for a
diplomatic solution, that the six-party process should be revived," he said. "We
agreed that all sides are interested in a diplomatic way."
However, the
South's Chun said negotiations likely couldn't restart until after the North
completes its response to the U.N. sanctions. So far, the North has rejected the
resolution and said it could take unspecified "physical" action in response to
continued U.S. pressure.
"I'll be able to predict with confidence
whether we will reopen diplomacy after we see North Korea's reaction," he said.
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