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Russia Maintains "Cautious Optimism" on North Korea Talks

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 12:00 CDT

Excerpt from report by Russian news agency Interfax

Beijing, 27 July: The speeches made by the delegation heads at the plenary session of the six-sided talks on the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula today show that there are still substantial differences in the approaches of North Korea and the USA to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, the head of the Russian delegation, Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Alekseyev, has told Russian journalists.

"An analysis of the speeches by the North Korean and US delegations shows that there are still differences on conceptual issues between the two countries," the Russian diplomat stressed.

He noted that the Russian delegation is making efforts to bring together the positions of the main participants at the talks - North Korea and the USA - in order to overcome their differences.

The diplomat added that there will be a meeting on Thursday [28 July] of the North Korean and US delegations in a bilateral format, after which it will be clear how much progress it will be possible to make during the fourth round of the talks.

Alekseyev noted that the Russian delegation continues to "maintain a cautious optimism". [Passage omitted]

[The attempt by the Japanese delegation to again raise the issue of Japanese people abducted by the North Korean special services failed to find any support among the other delegations, Alekseyev was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS at 1233 gmt]

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

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