Russia expects to resume dialogue on the issue of Korean peninsula, hopes for contacts between the US and North Korea, and is ready to assist, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
“We hope that we will be able to resume dialogue on resolving the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula. Of course, in this regard, we primarily hope to intensify cooperation between Washington and Pyongyang. For our part, we have provided and will continue to provide the greatest possible assistance”, – he said at the Conference on nonproliferation.
For many years, the DPRK nuclear program has been causing concern of the world community; its development has forced the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against Pyongyang. After a series of missile and nuclear tests in 2017, North Korea announced the achievement of the objectives of the program and readiness for denuclearization, implying the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from all over the Korean Peninsula and the receipt of security guarantees.
Since 2018, two US-DPRK summits have been held, at which the parties agreed to move towards the denuclearization and normalization of relations, and four inter-Korean summits were also held. Recently, dialogue in both areas has stalled. Washington is demanding more decisive action from Pyongyang to renounce nuclear weapons, while the DPRK, in turn, notes that the United States is not taking anything at all in response to its voluntary denuclearization steps.