Russia to conduct bilateral consultations with participants of talks on North Korean issue

Russia will conduct a number of bilateral consultations with participants of multilateral negotiations on the North Korean issue, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said.

In his interview with journalists Mr. Losyukov pointed out that "negotiations with North Korean, Chinese and perhaps with US representatives have been scheduled for the near future." According to Alexander Losyukov, the consultations will be conducted on the level of experts. "Before we start negotiating we must have a general stance that can usually be formed during such bilateral consultations," the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said.

"The date of the talks as well as the agenda will be accepted during the consultations," he said.

We must clearly understand what North Korea wants from the talks, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister emphasized. Moreover, according to him, "it is necessary to understand what objectives other participants beside the USA and North Korea must have." "If on the whole everything is quite clear - it is the demilitarization of the Korean Peninsula, elimination of any chance to use nuclear weapons, in detail it is not clear. We have to talk over how it all should be started, how the talks will be organized," Alexander Losyukov said. According to Mr. Losyukov, it will take a month at least.