N. Korea says Russia against U.N. sanctions over rocket launch

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PYONGYANG, April 24 Kyodo -
North Korea said Friday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reaffirmed
Moscow's position of opposing U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang's recent rocket
launch during his visit to the country.
Lavrov made the remark in talks on Thursday with his North Korean counterpart
Pak Ui Chun, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said through the
country's official Korean Central News Agency.
''The Russian side reconfirmed its stand on the U.N. sanctions against the
DPRK,'' the spokesman was quoted as saying. DPRK is the acronym for North
Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The spokesman said the two sides also acknowledged that the launching of
satellites is the sovereign right of nations, according to the KCNA.
Russia ''paid attention'' to North Korea's position that it sees no need to
hold the six-party talks any longer, the report said.
Angered by a U.N. Security Council statement condemning the April 5 rocket
launch, North Korea has said it was pulling out of the multilateral
denuclearization talks grouping the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan
and Russia.
Lavrov also met with Kim Yong Nam, the president of the Presidium of the
Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's parliament, during his two-day visit
to Pyongyang ending Friday.
==Kyodo
2009-04-24 22:57:08