MOSCOW, September 18 (RIA Novosti) - Six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program may be resumed but with only four parties, excluding Russia and Japan, a leading Russian expert on Korea told RIA Novosti on Friday.
Earlier on Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met with a special Chinese presidential envoy to discuss bilateral and international issues "in a cordial atmosphere," South Korea's Yonhap agency quoted Pyongyang's Korean Central Broadcasting Station as saying.
"North Korea has virtually insisted on two-party dialogue with the U.S. to solve the nuclear issue, among other security issues on the Korean Peninsula...and someone else could also join [the talks], like South Korea or China," Alexander Zhebin, the head of the Center for Korean Studies at the Far East Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said.
Zhebin said since Japan has taken a boycotting position in the talks, it "would be excluded from the team" as Japan has "disappointed the North Koreans."
China is one of the countries - along with Russia, Japan, South Korea and the United States - trying to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program through six-party talks.
"During discussions at the UN Security Council earlier this year on the nuclear missile issue... Russia showed its solidarity with the U.S. and Japan's position, which clearly disappointed Pyongyang," Zhebin said.
He said a similar situation had occurred in the 1990s when Russia followed the West's position in regard to relations with North Korea, resulting in the North considering Russia's participation in multi-party talks at the time to be useless. He added: "Russia may be excluded from participating in the talks."
Ties between North Korea and its main ally China have been strained since the North's nuclear test blast in May this year, and ensuing missile tests.
Beijing has recently been pressing the North to return to the negotiating table.
According to Zhebin, Pyongyang is making a positive move by showing some flexibility in the format of possible talks and is willing to hold bilateral dialogue with the U.S. or expand the negotiations to include China and South Korea.
Yonhap news agency said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to visit the country in early October to mediate envisioned one-on-one talks between North Korea and the United States.
