Russian FM to travel to Seoul, Pyongyang next month: report

MOSCOW (AFP) Jun 23, 2004
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit the capitals of North and South Korea in early July, in a bid to push forward Pyongyang's talks with Washington over their nuclear standoff, officials said Wednesday.

Lavrov will visit Seoul July 3-4 and Pyongyang July 4-5, a ministry statement said, according to the Interfax news agency.

The top Russian diplomat during his talks in the isolated Stalinist north will discuss bilateral issues and "the situation in the Korean peninsula and international problems," the news agency quoted the statement as saying.

A third round of six-nation negotiations aimed at ending the 20-month-old standoff began in Beijing on Wednesday.

Russia has tried to act as a neutral mediator between North Korea and the United States in their nuclear weapons dispute, although its role has been overshadowed by that of China.

Russia remains one of the few nations that has access to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, with Russian President Vladimir Putin having met him three times since his own election in 2000.

WAR.WIRE