Russia to contribute to Korean settlement

Russia intends to play an active role in the Korean settlement. "The deepening of the crisis in that region is dangerous for us and does not meet our interests, therefore Russia will have an active stance being in contact with other countries," Alexander Losyukov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister heading the Russian delegation at the multilateral negotiations in Beijing said on Friday.

According to him, in the course of the first round of the six-sided meeting on the nuclear problem of North Korea, the Russian delegation closely cooperated with representatives of China. This cooperation "rested on the similarity of our stances, on the full coincidence of the interests at this stage," said the high-ranking Russian diplomat.

At the final session on Friday, the Russian delegation said that the parties had to do their best to develop negotiations on the North Korean nuclear issue. Moscow believes the talks have a good potential for removing mistrust, suspicion and mutual concerns." This would also contribute to the inter-Korean rapprochement process and, possibly, "to reunification of both parts of Korea in the future," the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said.