Moscow deeply concerned over North Korea's decision to give up the freezing of its nuclear programme

Moscow is deeply concerned over the statement by the North Korean Foreign Ministry's spokesman about the decision of that country "to give up the freezing of its nuclear programme." As the information and press department of the Russian Foreign Ministry has told RIA Novosti this Friday, this is what the Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said when replying to the question of Russian journalists.

He reminded them that the North Korean side had taken this decision due to the termination of the deliveries to Pyongyang of compensation fuel oil carried out under the 1994 North Korean-US framework agreement.

Yakovenko also said that the position of Russia on this issue "is well known." "We speak for the strict observance of the Treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the fulfilment of the agreements on the IAEA's guarantees and the nuclear-free status of the Korean peninsula," the Russian diplomat stressed.

According to him, Russia urges all interested parties to solve the existing problems by way of a dialogue based on the earlier accords, including the 1994 framework agreement, which "will, no doubt, help to normalise the situation in that region."