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Moscow Offers "Common Sense" Initiatives, Compensation to North Korea

Posted on: Monday, 25 July 2005, 06:00 CDT

Russia is prepared to offer compensatory aide to North Korea, including energy supplies, for abandoning its nuclear programme, ITAR-TASS reported on 25 July, quoting Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Alekseyev. Speaking to journalists at Beijing airport Alekseyev, who heads the Russian delegation to the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear problem, said that Russia has put forward a package of proposals "based on common sense" to help resolve the problem.

The diplomat added that the fourth round of the six-party talks is expected to produce "concrete results" and called on the negotiators to "look more closely" at the Russian initiatives. Alekseyev also said that the Russian delegation would like this round to result in a "more detailed, synchronized" schedule of the process of the North Korean nuclear programme's dismantlement.

China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States have held three rounds of talks on the North Korean nuclear programme since August 2003. The previous one was held in June 2004. Alekseyev noted that the negotiators have not wasted time since then. The participants, he said, have carried out "intensive consultations in various formats and configurations which resulted in the agreement to hold the fourth round".

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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