Russia warns N Korea over nukes
2007-01-31 16:28
Moscow - North Korea's nuclear weapons capability threatens Russian interests, Moscow's chief negotiator at international talks with Pyongyang said on Wednesday, warning the isolated Stalinist state against carrying out another military test.
"If the absence of a nuclear weapon on the Korean peninsula is in our interests, and one of the countries located there declares that it has become a nuclear power, it means that our interests are under threat," Alexander Losyukov was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
He cautioned North Korea against a repeat of last October's atomic bomb test. "I think a very negative reaction would follow another test and that tougher measures would probably be taken," he said.
Losyukov spoke ahead of February 8 talks in Beijing - involving China, Japan, South and North Korea, Russia and the United States - to try to persuade North Korea to give up its military nuclear programme.
He said that although "concrete" results were unlikely in Beijing, "it could be possible to lay out quite precisely the route toward achieving them".
Reflecting the growing flurry of diplomatic activity, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov met in Moscow with his South Korean counterpart Song Min-Soon to discuss "resolving the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula," Interfax reported.