NORTH KOREA: A Russian envoy has described six hours of talks with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, on the nuclear standoff between Pyongyang and Washington, as substantive and successful.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Losyukov, gave no details as he emerged yesterday from the talks at a heavily guarded residence on the northern outskirts of Pyongyang, according to Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.
"The meeting was very substantive. The atmosphere was very warm," Mr Losyukov said as he left to return to the Russian embassy. Russia's Tass news agency quoted him as saying Moscow was counting on further contacts to hammer out the details of a possible solution to the crisis.
It was the first sign of a possible breakthrough in an impasse which began in October when Washington said the North had admitted to a secret nuclear weapons programme. Pyongyang later ordered United Nations nuclear inspectors to leave, removed the seals from a moth-balled reactor and pulled out of the nuclear proliferation treaty.
A suggestion by a senior US official that the crisis should be brought before the UN Security Council places added pressure on Pyongyang.
Mr Losyukov presented Pyongyang with a set of three proposals which call for the Korean peninsula to be nuclear-free in exchange for guarantees of the North's security and for the resumption of aid to the impoverished communist state.
"The Korean side constructively and attentively considered these proposals," Mr Losyukov was quoted as saying.
"This work cannot stop at one round of talks and demands a significant amount of time, the comparison of positions and contacts with other sides in the conflict, including the United States."
He was believed to have given Mr Kim a message from the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin. Mr Kim has visited Russia twice in recent years and Mr Putin has made three trips to Pyongyang.
A senior North Korean diplomat tried to play down fears of conflict on the divided peninsula by saying the North had no wish to harm South Korea although it would regard any US move to impose sanctions as a declaration of war.
Mr Losyukov's trip is part of a flurry of diplomatic initiatives.
The US Undersecretary of State, Mr John Bolton, in Beijing for talks with Pyongyang's other main ally, said it was time to take the standoff to the UN Security Council, which could handle the Korea problem as well as the Iraq crisis.
"I think it is now timely to bring the matter to the Security Council and I think we're confident that it could handle both Iraq and North Korea at the same time," he said after meeting Chinese officials.
Mr Bolton said he did not sense that China, a permanent member of the Security Council, was opposed to taking the issue to the council.
South Korea said it would use meetings this week with Red Cross officials and cabinet ministers of North Korea to press Pyongyang to end the nuclear impasse.
North Korea has insisted that the US, which a year ago bracketed the North together with Iraq and Iran in an "axis of evil", is key to resolving the standoff. "The nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula was created by the United States and must be wholly resolved with us and the United States sitting knee-to-knee," the Korean Central News Agency quoted one official as telling Mr Losyukov.- (Reuters)