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Russia Open to Further Nuclear Talks Without North Korea

By VOA News
24 June 2009

Russia says it is open to further international discussions on North Korea's nuclear program, despite Pyongyang's withdrawal from the so-called six-party talks.

Russia's envoy to the nuclear talks, Alexei Borodavkin, said Russia would be open to continue talks with the remaining participants: the United States, China, Japan and South Korea, as long as the aim is to get North Korea to return to the negotiating table. Borodavkin spoke after meeting his South Korean counterpart, Wi Sung-lac, in Moscow.

China, which has hosted the nuclear talks, has not indicated whether its position on a five-party meeting.

In Beijing, Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka told reporters after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart that both sides repeated their opposition to a nuclear North Korea and their commitment to implement new U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang.

North Korean state media on Wednesday continued a barrage of bellicose rhetoric, threatening to wipe the United States off the map and reunify the Korean peninsula if the United States starts another war.

The commentary by Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency came days before the July 27 anniversary of the armistice in the 1950 - 1953 Korean War. The state-run agency chastised the United States for alleged atrocities during the war and claimed that the war ended in defeat for the U.S.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula and throughout the region have increased since Pyongyang's recent nuclear test, as well as several missile launches.

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution imposing new sanctions on the North, including authorizing U.N. members to track and inspect North Korean cargo ships for illicit missile-related technology.

A U.S. Navy destroyer off the Chinese coast is tracking a North Korean ship suspected of smuggling missiles or related parts in violation of the sanctions. Reports citing unidentified intelligence sources in South Korea say the vessel, the Kang Nam, appears to be heading to Burma by way of Singapore.

The U.S. military has not indicated any plans to search the vessel, which belongs to a fleet of ships that U.S. officials say have been used in the past to transport weapons.

North Korea has said it would consider such inspections an act of war.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.