Kim-Medvedev summit 'very important step' for N. Korea nuclear talks

SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- This week's rare summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was a "very important step" toward resuming the long-stalled nuclear disarmament talks with the North, Moscow's top diplomat to Seoul said Friday.
However, Ambassador Konstantin Vnukov, in an interview with Yonhap News Agency, admitted that there is a long road ahead for any resumption of the six-party talks, as North Korea must first demonstrate through action its commitment to denuclearize.
"This summit in Ulan-Ude was a very important step in a very right direction, first of all to stabilize the situation on the (Korean) peninsula and to start calculation," Vnukov said.
"We'll be ready to continue our job for the earliest resumption of six-party talks with all five partners and of course with North Korea," the ambassador said. "Under these circumstances, after (the) Russian-North Korean summit, there will be a lot of changing views among our (six-party) delegations."


Making his first visit to Russia this week in nearly a decade, the North's reclusive leader held the summit with Medvedev on Wednesday in the Siberian city of Ulan-Ude and reportedly expressed his willingness to rejoin the six-party talks.
After the summit, the Kremlin said Kim agreed to consider imposing a moratorium on nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches if the multilateral talks resume.
South Korea and the U.S. gave a cool response to Kim's reported pledge because they have demanded the North halt all of its nuclear activities and allow U.N. inspectors to verify the suspension before, not after, the six-party talks reopen.
Vnukov said Russia agreed with the assessment by Seoul and Washington, but urged the negotiating partners to be "optimistic."
"Some people said these achievements of the Russian side were not enough," the envoy said. "Of course, we don't have contradiction with our South Korean, American and Chinese friends within the six-party talks."
"But we cannot agree with those people who have the principle 'all or nothing,'" he emphasized.
"Diplomacy is a very complicated art of possibilities," Vnukov said. "We can use all possibilities to achieve the final goal, which is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
The six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear weapons programs in return for economic and other aid have been stalled since late 2008 when Pyongyang abruptly left the discussion table.
The North's revelation of its uranium enrichment facility, which could provide the communist regime with a new method to make atomic weapons, in addition to its known plutonium-based weapons program, has added urgency to efforts to resume the six-party talks.
One reason why South Korea and the U.S. reacted coolly to the Kim-Medvedev summit was that there was no mention of the North's uranium enrichment program (UEP).
Vnukov declined to confirm whether Kim and Medvedev had discussed the UEP, but added, "We also think it's a very important problem and it should be discussed."
After his summit with Kim, Medvedev also said the two sides made progress on a years-long Russian proposal to ship large amounts of Siberian natural gas to South Korea via a pipeline to be built across North Korea.
If realized, the project would carry huge geo-political implications on the Korean Peninsula. But prospects for the pipeline project appear dim, as many analysts worry it could be used by North Korea as leverage over the South, rather than as business for rapprochement.
Vnukov noted that, "We should have the guarantees on the government-to-government levels between three governments -- very concrete and very certain obligations and conditions."
Without such guarantees, he said, "It's impossible to go further because money should be protected."