Seoul-Moscow nuke envoys agree on dialogues with Pyongyang
North Korean military fires multiple short-range missiles in this photo North Korea's state media KCNA released on May 5. Yonhap
The deputy nuclear envoys of South Korea and Russia have shared the view on the need to keep the momentum for dialogue with North Korea going, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday, despite tensions caused by Pyongyang's recent launch of short-range projectiles.
Jeong Yeon-doo, the ministry's director-general of the North Korean Nuclear Affairs Bureau, held talks with his Russian counterpart Oleg Burmistrov, ambassador-at-large, in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss cooperation over the ongoing Korea peace process.
Their talks came after the North fired a volley of short-range projectiles into the East Sea on Saturday in an apparent show of growing frustration over its stalled nuclear negotiations with the United States.
"The two sides reaffirmed the shared goal of the complete denuclearization and the establishment of an enduring peace on the Korean Peninsula," the ministry said in a press release.
"(They) shared the view that it is important for concerned countries to maintain the momentum for dialogue (with the North) and focus on the efforts to resume the talks between the North and the U.S.," it added.
During the meeting between Jeong and Burmistrov, the Russian side evaluated Seoul's efforts for progress in inter-Korean relations and expressed its support for the South's key role in addressing peninsula-related issues, the ministry said.
The negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have been stalled since the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ended in February without a deal due to a failure to bridge gaps on the scope of denuclearization and sanctions relief.
During his stay in Moscow, Jeong also had a luncheon meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov. (Yonhap)