Russia welcomes N Korea talks

2003-04-14 21:00

Moscow - Russia marked an abrupt about-turn in its North Korean policy on Monday by saying it was upbeat about Pyongyang's announcement that it was ready to join multilateral talks with Washington over its weapons programmne.

Deputy Foreign Ministry Alexander Losyukov told the ITAR-TASS news agency that Russia "can only welcome" North Korea's weekend announcement.

Russia had previously opposed multilateral talks and instead called for direct negotiations between the United States and the isolated Stalinist state over its nuclear programme.

Losyukov himself had earlier on Monday been quoted as saying by a different news agency that Moscow took a sceptical view about the need for multilateral negotiations that besides the United States and North Korea, would include Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.

The senior foreign ministry official hinted in the original Interfax report that Moscow would not take part in such negotiations.

"The United States would prefer to stay on the sidelines while a group of countries conduct the talks with their (US) participation. Such an approach has no prospects and we will not take part in this," he told Interfax news agency.

"If we see that there is a real willingness on the part of the United States to reach an agreement, to ease the tensions through negotiations, then there would be a role for our diplomats," the deputy foreign minister said.

"But we are not getting a pragmatic answer from the Americans," Losyukov added.

But Russia appeared to decide on an abrupt shift in policy by Monday evening.

Turnabout welcomed

"Of course, we can only welcome this statement" from North Korea, he told ITAR-TASS.

Russia is "prepared to take part in multilateral discussions, which should based on the experience and ideas of both the North Korean and US sides."

Pyongyang's turnabout was welcomed as "very good news" by US President George W Bush but no talks have yet been scheduled.

South Korean officials said the collapse of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's dictatorship may have induced North Korea to make the surprise announcement.

Until now, Pyongyang had held out for one-on-one talks with Washington and rejected US attempts to involve other nations.

The stand-off erupted in October when Washington said North Korea had admitted to running a secret nuclear programme in breach of a 1994 bilateral accord.

Since then Pyongyang has kicked out international weapons inspectors, pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and fired up a reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear plant that is capable of producing weapons grade plutonium.

- AFX