Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday will pay his first visit to Pyongyang over the past nine years to hold talks with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-ho on the settlement on the Korean Peninsula.
“Negotiations between the foreign ministers are scheduled, during which the sides are expected to discuss topical issues of bilateral agenda and also exchange views on the situation around the Korean Peninsula and other major international and regional problems,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The foreign ministers will focus on international efforts on resuming multilateral dialogue on the Korean Peninsula’s denuclearization. Ahead of the visit, Lavrov said the Korean Peninsula cannot be denuclearized in one move. “It will require step-by-step actions, consistency and patience,” Lavrov noted. “At the final stage of the process, as envisaged by the Russian-Chinese road map, multilateral talks involving all the six countries (Russia, China, North Korea, South Korea, the US and Japan), which have been part of the process for a long time, will become inevitable,” he said.