Russia and the United States are against putting too much pressure on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and urged the resumption of the six-party talks, a Russian diplomat said Wednesday.
Foreign Ministry Special Ambassador Grigory Logvinov met with Sung Kim, a US special envoy to the six-party talks, about the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula Wednesday.
"We discussed in detail various aspects of the situation, putting an accent on the main thing -- the search for solutions should be sought on diplomatic negotiating tracks without too much fuss and without drama, to say nothing of attempts to put pressure," the Interfax news agency quoted Logvinov as saying after the meeting.
Russia and the United States agree the six-party talks must be resumed, he said.
The six-party talks, involving the DPRK, Japan, Russia, China, South Korea and the United States, were first held in Beijing in August 2003, and have made tangible progress on the issue in the following years.
"The common wish is that the six-party process be resumed one way or another. And all the gains achieved -- a great deal has been achieved -- must be saved," Logvinov said, "We must not lose what we have done in terms of denuclearization and in terms of starting the effort to lay the groundwork for regional security in Northeast Asia."
The DPRK announced in early April that it would quit the six-party talks after the UN Security Council adopted a presidential statement condemning its April 5 rocket launch.
Pyongyang also threatened to conduct nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests if the Security Council does not apologize for "infringing" on the country's sovereignty.
(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2009)
