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Russian Delegation Leaves for Korean Nuclear Talks in China

Posted on: Sunday, 24 July 2005, 18:00 CDT

Excerpt from report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS

Moscow, 25 July: A Russian delegation left for Beijing late on Sunday [24 July] to take part in the six-sided talks on the North Korean nuclear issue, " hoping to achieve concrete results", Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Alekseyev has told ITAR-TASS.

[Passage omitted: known background] "Six countries are gathering for these talks after a break of more than a year," said Alekseyev, who heads the Russian delegation. "At preliminary consultations at least, all the sides said repeatedly that they hoped for positive results." [Passage omitted: known background]

On the eve of the Beijing meeting, Moscow called on Pyongyang "to aim for a comprehensive solution" of the issue of its return to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. "It looks as though the issue of North Korea's return to that treaty should be resolved by the North Korean side 'in a package' with other issues pertaining to the settlement of the nuclear problem in the peninsula," Alekseyev told ITAR-TASS. "Above all, the concerns that North Korea and other participants in the talks still have should be removed," he believes. "It is on this that Russia's efforts and those of its partners will concentrate."

[Passage omitted: earlier comments from a Russian MP]

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

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