MOSCOW, July 5 (RIA Novosti) - North Korea's missile test launches will not help six-nation talks to resolve the long-running dispute over its controversial nuclear programs, a deputy Russian foreign minister said Wednesday.
The communist nation launched six missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, late Tuesday despite a moratorium on missile tests. According to the Japanese military, all the missiles fell into the northwest of the Sea of Japan closer to Russia than to Japan.
"We believe it was an ambiguous event that cannot help the six-party process," Alexander Alekseyev said.
Russia, China, Japan, the United States and South Korea have been involved in negotiations with the secretive nation led by Kim Jong-il since 2003. In 2005, North Korea announced it had developed a nuclear capability.
Alekseyev said the Russian Foreign Ministry would issue an official statement later.
In August 1998, North Korea launched its first three-stage missile, which it said had put a satellite in orbit. The carrier rocket flew over Japan and fell into the Pacific. The U.S. and Japan accused North Korea of testing ballistic missiles at the time.
In September 1999, North Korea declared a moratorium on missile tests to be in effect throughout talks with the U.S. administration, but in 2003 the country withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and lifted the atomic research moratorium in 2005 when the U.S. withdrew from the nuclear talks.
At the last round of six-nation talks in September 2005, North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees, but later refused to rejoin the talks until Washington lifted financial sanctions imposed over its alleged involvement in counterfeiting and other illegal activities.
