Konstantin Pulikovsky said the North Koreans are looking for a solution to the debt problem "at the head of state level," adding Pyongyang expects its debt will be written off.
He said earlier North Korea was unable to repay its debt to Russia and wants it to make "a political decision" on the issue, while the bilateral intergovernmental commission for economic and technological cooperation, which met in Moscow in March following a six-year break, is unable to make such a decision.
"Such decisions fall within the scope of the countries' top leadership," he said.
Debt negotiations were broken off in 2002. Pyongyang requested almost all the debt be canceled, while Moscow offered various debt conversion schemes, including debt-for-asset swaps.
But North Korea said there were legal impediments to such schemes.
