Russia may play constructive role at six-party talks: S.Korean FM

Russia should and can play an important and constructive role in promoting the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula's nuclear issue, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said on Monday.

Song, who arrived earlier in the day on a two-day visit to Moscow, told the Itar-Tass news agency that he believed the success of the six-party talks "will have a positive effect not only on stability and security in East Asia, but also on the development of Russia's Far East and Siberia."

"The improvement of relations between the two Koreas, as well as between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), will help make the DPRK market more transparent," Song was quoted as saying.

"We will be able to improve some topical economic projects, including the linkage of two railways into a unified inter-Korean one," he said.

Song is currently on two-nation tour that had already taken him to Washington where he met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to discuss early steps for implementation of the recent joint document adopted at the six-party talks.

In Moscow, Song is scheduled to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and Russian Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov.

The latest round of six-party talks, involving China, the United States, the DPRK, South Korea, Russia and Japan, ended in Beijing last month with a joint statement on the first step toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Under the document, the DPRK will shut down and seal its Yongbyon nuclear facility including the reprocessing facility and will invite IAEA inspectors to return to the country to monitor and verify its actions.

In return for shutting down the reactor, the parties agreed to provide Pyongyang with 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil within 60 days as emergency energy assistance in the initial phase.

Source: Xinhua