Moscow is ready to continue contacts with the United States, South Korea and Japan, despite their unfriendly actions
Moscow. April 30. INTERFAX - Moscow does not refuse contacts with the unfriendly participants of the six-party talks on North Korea (Russia, North Korea, China, USA, South Korea, Japan), still considers this format optimal, Director of the First Asia Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Georgy Zinoviev said in an interview with Interfax.
"Russia invariably adheres to the position that the six-party talks are the optimal format for resolving the situation on the Korean peninsula. We are convinced that it is possible to achieve the denuclearization of its entire territory and lay the foundations for the creation of a solid system of peace and security in Northeast Asia only through political and diplomatic means, acting on the basis of the principles of equality, step-by-step and synchronicity," the senior Russian diplomat said.
Speaking about whether this format could somehow be affected by the fact that half of the participants in the six-party talks - the United States, South Korea, Japan - were recognized by the Russian side as unfriendly states, Zinoviev said: "As for the participants of the six-party talks included in the list of foreign states committing unfriendly actions against the Russian Federation, Russian legal entities and individuals, we do not refuse to contact them on issues of the Korean settlement."
Thus, he recalled that in March in Moscow, consultations were held between Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov and Special Representative of the Chinese government for the Korean Peninsula Liu Xiaoming, during which the current situation around the peninsula was discussed in detail.
Zinoviev recalled that cooperation with partners on Korean issues continues, "despite the unprecedented aggravation of the international situation under the influence of the Ukrainian crisis." So, in March, Morgulov had two telephone conversations with the Special Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea for Peace and Security on the Korean Peninsula, No Gyu Dok, discussing topical issues of cooperation in this area.