MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russian experts do not consider the six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear problem, in recess until late August, a failure.
"The agreement to continue the talks is important," Anton Khlopkov, deputy director of the PIR-Center for Policy Studies in Russia, said Wednesday.
"The fixing of the date of the next round is also important," he added.
The six negotiating parties failed to agree on the nuclear-free status of the Korean peninsula. The United States insists that North Korea should give up the use of nuclear technology, whereas Pyongyang asserts its right to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes.
Retired Lieutenant General Gennady Yevstafyev, an expert with the PIR-Center, criticized the U.S. position. He pointed out that some states can possess nuclear weapons, some can use nuclear power for peaceful purposes, and others have no rights at all.
The expert said the U.S. had revised its policy in Asia and had come closer to an official recognition of North Korea. However, the U.S. does not want to yield its political initiative given Beijing's growing political activism.
Yevstafyev said he did not expect a breakthrough in the next round of North Korean talks "because the problem was too old." If the sides agreed to a document on principles for further dialogue, "this achievement would lead to stabilization in northeast Asia."
The six-nation talks involving Russia, the United States, North Korea, South Korea, China, and Japan were launched in Beijing in 2003.
