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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks with his North Korean counterpart Paek Nam-Sun in Pyongyang Sunday, focusing on the 20-month standoff over the Stalinist state's nuclear drive, state media said. Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency said both sides had expressed satisfaction over developing bilateral relations and exchanged views on the need to boost the friendly ties. The news agency said the two ministers had also discussed "a series of issues of common concern including international issues," giving no details on the contents of the talks. It is to be seen whether Lavrov will meet with North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-Il. Earlier on Sunday, Lavrov arrived in Pyongyang for a two-day visit following his 24-hour visit to Seoul during which he met with his South Korean counterpart Ban Ki-Moon and President Roh Moo-Hyun. Lavrov said here Saturday that he would have talks with top North Korean officials on bilateral ties and the outcome of recent six-nation talks aimed at defusing tensions over the Stalinist state's nuclear weapons programme. The third round of the talks in Beijing last month ended without a breakthrough, although the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia agreed to meet again by the end of September. Following talks with Ban, Lavrov said North Korea had to be given "solid security guarantees as well as aid for its social and economic development" in return for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Ban said Saturday that he had asked Lavrov to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear program. The United States has offered to give Pyongyang three months to shut down and seal its nuclear weapons facilities in return for economic and diplomatic rewards. It was the first significant overture to Pyongyang since US President George W. Bush took office in early 2001 and branded the North part of an "axis of evil" alongside Iran and pre-war Iraq. Pyongyang has proposed freezing its nuclear program and pledged to stop building, testing and transferring nuclear weapons, but insisted Washington's rewards for concessions were the only way to resolve the impasse. The stand-off erupted in October 2002 when the United States said North Korea acknowledged it was developing nuclear weapons, violating a 1994 international agreement. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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