22/7 Tass 91
BALI ISLAND, July 22 (Itar-Tass) — Russia welcomes North Korea’s readiness to resume the sextet talks without preliminary conditions, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said following his meeting with the DPRK’s Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun on the fields of the Russia-ASEAN ministerial meeting on Friday.
“To a big extent the meeting was devoted to the nuclear problem of the Korean Peninsula,” Lavrov said. “We welcomed Pyongyang’s readiness to resume participation in the sextet talks without preliminary conditions.”
Lavrov is in Indonesia, where he is participating in the annual ASEAN form on security in the Asia-Pacific Region.
The sextet talks, featuring Russia, China, the USA, Japan and both Koreas and which are devoted to the Korean Peninsula’s nuclear problem, have been going on with long termination periods in Beijing from August 27, 2003. Pyongyang terminated the sixth round on September 30, 2007.