Russian FM sees no breakthrough in N. Korea trip

[April 23, 2009]  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Russia does not expect an imminent breakthrough in the standoff over North Korea's nuclear program, Moscow's top diplomat was quoted as saying Thursday after talks with Pyongyang's foreign minister.

North Korea last week expelled all international monitors from its nuclear facilities, vowed to restart its atomic program and quit disarmament negotiations, after the U.N. Security Council condemned its April 5 rocket launch and called for expanded sanctions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived Thursday in Pyongyang on a mission to try to persuade North Korea to rejoin the talks. Media reports have said the trip could also include a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

"We are not anticipating any breakthrough at the time being. This is a complicated issue," Lavrov told reporters after talks with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun, according to the Interfax news agency. "But it would be wrong to yield to emotions."

North Korea says the U.N. rebuke was unfair because the its rocket was launching a satellite. But the U.S. and others believe it was a test of long-range missile technology.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said earlier this week that the North could restart its nuclear facilities within months, which would allow it to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

In Pyongyang, Lavrov also signed a culture and science exchange agreement with North Korea and paid his respects at the palace where the embalmed body of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung is displayed.

North Korea's relations with Moscow are not so close as they were during the Soviet era but remain cordial. Moscow usually avoids openly criticizing the North.

"A threat of sanctions to North Korea is counterproductive," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Lavrov as saying, without specifying the time or place of his comments. Lavrov also urged all parties to the nuclear talks to stick to their obligations.

Under a 2007 six-party deal, North Korea agreed to disable its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon in return for the equivalent of 1 million tons of fuel oil and other concessions. In June 2008, North Korea blew up a cooling tower at the plant in a dramatic display of its commitment to denuclearization.

But the disablement came to halt a month later as North Korea wrangled with Washington over how to verify its past nuclear activities.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan warned the North of consequences if it restarts its nuclear facilities.

"I think corresponding measures will be taken not only by the United Nations, but also by related countries, including South Korea and the U.S.," Yu told reporters.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a hearing at the House of Representatives that Washington is ready to resume the nuclear talks and that she thinks the "strong support that we see among the parties against what North Korea is doing will eventually yield fruit."

"We have to be strong, patient, persistent, and not give in to ... the unpredictable behavior of the North Korean regime," Clinton said.

Lavrov also plans to visit South Korea on Friday after the North Korean trip.

Tensions on the divided peninsula have been running high. The two sides held their first official dialogue Tuesday since Seoul's conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office last year, but the brief meeting ended without progress.

North Korea rejected Seoul's request for the release of a South Korean worker being held at a joint industrial zone in Kaesong, just north of the border. North Korea also demanded that South Korean companies pay more to use the factory park.

North warned it would take strong measures against South Korea if it doesn't give in to the demand, the Yonhap news agency said Thursday. South Korea's Unification Ministry said it could not confirm the news report.

Relations between the two Koreas have frayed badly as North Korea has denounced the South Korean government's tougher stance. It cut off reconciliation talks and suspended key joint projects, leaving the industrial zone as the only major remaining project.

[Associated Press; By JAE-SOON CHANG]

Associated Press writer David Nowak in Moscow contributed to this report.

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