North Korea is prepared to renew six-party talks on its nuclear program without any "preliminary conditions," South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday.
A representative from North Korea met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin in Pyongyang and said that if such a meeting were to be held, then the North would count on a "principle of reciprocal actions."
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday that North Korea should return to nuclear negotiations and allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to the country's nuclear facilities.
In order for the resumption of negotiations, North Korea should take constructive steps: "announce its readiness to return to the six-party talks without preliminary conditions based on the joint statement by China, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, the United States and Japan from September 19, 2005, impose a moratorium on production and testing of nuclear weapons, and on launches of rockets with ballistic technologies, agree on the inspection by IAEA experts of facilities for enriching uranium and on the inclusion of North Korea's uranium dossier into the agenda of talks, invite IAEA inspectors to the nuclear center," the ministry said.
North Korea has been subjected to several rounds of UN Security Council sanctions since it declared itself a nuclear power in 2005. The state broke off talks with South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia on its nuclear program in April 2009, after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning its missile tests.
MOSCOW, March 15 (RIA Novosti)
