Seoul seeks Moscow’s help to resume six-party talks

By Park Si-soo

Russia is optimistic about North Korea's recent talks with South Korea and the United States over its nuclear programs, Seoul's new nuclear envoy said Saturday.

``Russia is viewing the two rounds of South-North and North-U.S. talks positively,” Lim Sung-nam said after returning home from his three-day visit to Russia. “(I will) further increase joint efforts with Russia to solve North Korean issues on the basis of a strategic partnership.”

Lim took over the position earlier this month from Wi Sung-lac, who is about to leave for Moscow to take his post as Korea ambassador to Russia.

The new envoy’s recent visit to Russia was to seek policy coordination with member nations of the six-nation talks aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear program, which include the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

He met with his Russian counterpart, Alexei Borodavkin, and other senior officials, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT).

During his stay in Moscow, North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-kwan was ㅡ possibly by coincidence ㅡ also visiting the city. MOFAT denied the speculation of any clandestine meeting between the two.

The two Koreas held two rounds of talks in July and September to try and persuade the North to take concrete steps toward denuclearization before the multilateral dialogue can resume. Two rounds of similar Washington-Pyongyang talks took place in July in New York and in Geneva earlier this month.

The lack of a breakthrough maintains the current deadlock in the six-party talks, suspended in April 2009.