Russian MP says there is no alternative to Korean nuclear talks.

24/11 Tass 189

PYONGYANG, November 24 (Itar-Tass) - There is no alternative to the
talks on the North Korean nuclear problem, Sergei Mironov, the speaker of
the upper house of Russian parliament, who is visiting Pyongyang, said
Tuesday.

He expressed this viewpoint at talks with the Chairman of North Korea'
s Supreme People's Assembly, Choi Tae Bok, and the Chairman of the Cabinet
of Ministers Kim Yong Il.
"I told them about my opinion, which is that only the process of
negotiations, multilateral guarantees and engagement in the political
solution of the Korean nuclear problem may open up the road to a success,"
Mironov told reporters.
"Every state including North Korea has the right to count on ensuring
its own security for the purpose of keeping up its sovereignty," he said.
"Pyongyang's apprehensions in the wake of the presence of a military
machine as mighty as the union of the U.S., South Korea and Japan are
quite legitimate," Mironov said.
"Along with it, as a participant in and initiator of Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons can't watch idly how these nuclear
weapons are being created and tested and how ever more new countries - the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea in this case - get involved in it."
He indicated that he felt reluctant to conceal this alarm from his
interlocutors but they did not express any clear position on the issue.
"It's too difficult yet to speculate on the kind of future we're going
to face," Mironov admitted.
"Since there's no real alternative to the talks, the North Korean
leadership will be returning to the issue," he said.
As reported earlier, U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth is expected
to visit Pyongyang December 8 in a bid to persuade North Korea to return
to the six-partite Korean denuclearisation talks.
"Russia hopes Pyongyang and Washington will reach common grounds on
the issue of the North Korean nuclear program," Russian Foreign Ministry's
official spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said in connection with it.
He added that "Russia treats favourably the negotiations in any
format."
The Russian delegation now visiting Pyongyang includes Deputy Foreign
Minister Alexei Borodavkin, who represents Russia at the six-partite talks
on settling the Korean nuclear problem.
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