Russia's Lavrov to leave for Seoul after N.Korea trip

Russia's FM will travel to Seoul today, following a visit to N.Korea where officials stood by their decision to abandon six-party talks on nuclear disarmament. During his visit to Pyongyang, Sergei Lavrov met with the reclusive communist state's number two leader Kim Yong-nam and Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun. Russia's Lavrov to leave for Seoul after N.Korea trip North Korea withdrew from the six-nation talks on scrapping its nuclear program after the UN Security Council condemned the launch of a rocket on April 5, which Pyongyang said was carrying a communications satellite. The North also expelled IAEA nuclear inspectors and pledged to resume its work at the Yongbyon nuclear facility. After his meeting with North Korean officials on Thursday, Lavrov said: "We are not expecting a breakthrough yet. This is a complicated issue, and we should not give way to emotions, instead we should concentrate on what we have already achieved." He urged all parties to honor earlier agreements: "If everybody takes such a stand, we will be able to get through this crisis." South Korea's Yonhap agency quoted a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying: "The Russian side reconfirmed its stand against UN sanctions against the DPRK [North Korea] and took note of the DPRK's position that there is no need to hold the six-party talks any longer." The six-nation talks, involving North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States, were launched in 2003 after Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Lavrov's trip comes at a tense time in relations between the two Koreas, over the rocket launch and the arrest of a South Korean at the Kaesong industrial complex. North Korean police arrested a South Korean worker at the plant a month ago, for allegedly making critical comments about Pyongyang's regime, and encouraging a North Korean woman to defect. North Korea has reacted furiously to suggestions that Seoul could join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a U.S.-led pact to prevent supplies of weapons of mass destruction, and has warned that it would consider such a move a declaration of war.

Russia's Lavrov to leave for Seoul after N.Korea trip

North Korea withdrew from the six-nation talks on scrapping its nuclear program after the UN Security Council condemned the launch of a rocket on April 5, which Pyongyang said was carrying a communications satellite.

The North also expelled IAEA nuclear inspectors and pledged to resume its work at the Yongbyon nuclear facility.

After his meeting with North Korean officials on Thursday, Lavrov said: "We are not expecting a breakthrough yet. This is a complicated issue, and we should not give way to emotions, instead we should concentrate on what we have already achieved."

He urged all parties to honor earlier agreements: "If everybody takes such a stand, we will be able to get through this crisis."

South Korea's Yonhap agency quoted a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying: "The Russian side reconfirmed its stand against UN sanctions against the DPRK [North Korea] and took note of the DPRK's position that there is no need to hold the six-party talks any longer."

The six-nation talks, involving North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States, were launched in 2003 after Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Lavrov's trip comes at a tense time in relations between the two Koreas, over the rocket launch and the arrest of a South Korean at the Kaesong industrial complex.

North Korean police arrested a South Korean worker at the plant a month ago, for allegedly making critical comments about Pyongyang's regime, and encouraging a North Korean woman to defect.

North Korea has reacted furiously to suggestions that Seoul could join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a U.S.-led pact to prevent supplies of weapons of mass destruction, and has warned that it would consider such a move a declaration of war.