Moscow hopes that the new South Korean leadership will intensify cooperation with Russia on resolution of the Korean issue, Russian Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Timonin said.
Moscow expects progress in the settlement of the North Korean nuclear issue following the election of the new South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, Russia’s Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Timonin said Thursday.
“In his statements, President Moon Jae-in has repeatedly stressed that his plans include the gradual normalization of relations with the DPRK,” Timonin said in an interview with Rossiya 24 television channel.
“Positive changes will outline soon in the settlement of the Korean Peninsula’s nuclear problem, since the president of the Republic of Korea, like the population of the country, is concerned about the situation, and the new president believes his priority task is to normalize the situation in Korea,” he said.
On May 10, Moon Jae-in became the president of South Korea. He has said that Seoul wants to jointly denuclearize the Korean Peninsula together with Beijing.
“The leadership of the Republic of Korea, as before, views Russia as an influential actor, as a country which has much influence on the Korean peninsula, as one with friendly relations with North Korea and which has certain leverage with Pyongyang. In this regard, we hope that the new Korean leadership will intensify cooperation with our country in pursuit of peaceful ways to resolve the Korean issue,” Timonin said.
The situation on the Korean peninsula aggravated in recent months as North Korea carried out a number of missile launches and nuclear tests , which are considered to be in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions.