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Monday, Oct 23, 2006
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U.S. provoked N. Korea: Russia

Vladimir Radyuhin

Show flexibility in approach towards Pyongyang, Moscow tells Washington

MOSCOW: Russia urged the U.S. to show more flexibility and work towards the resumption of six-party talks to resolve the North Korea nuclear crisis.

As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left Moscow on Sunday after meeting Russian leaders to discuss North Korea, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned against trying to punish Pyongyang.

Ms. Rice called on President Vladimir Putin and held talks with the Foreign and Defence Ministers during her two-day visit at the weekend.

No statements were made after the talks, but American diplomats indicated that Ms. Rice pushed for strict implementation of the U.N. sanctions against North Korea.

Mr. Lavrov said the U.N. sanctions were not a punishment, but a precaution against the shipment of nuclear and missile technologies to and from North Korea, and an inducement to Pyongyang to resume the six-party talks.

"All sides must show realism and depart from extreme, uncompromising positions," the Russian Foreign Minister said in an interview. He suggested that the U.S. policy of sabre-rattling aggravated the problem of proliferation.

"More and more countries are looking for ways to ensure their security in a situation when the use of force is a growing factor in international relations," Mr. Lavrov said. "It is impossible to handle the problem of non-proliferation without responding to this [security concerns]."

Russian analysts accused the U.S. of deliberately provoking North Korea to explode its plutonium device by pulling out of the Agreed Framework accord the Bill Clinton Administration had negotiated with Pyongyang in 1994.

"The U.S. never intended to honour the Agreed Framework and did not fully fulfil any of its provisions," said Alexander Zhebin, head of the Centre for Korean Studies at Russia's Institute of the Far East. "The U.S. would love to place a bursting boiler at Russia's doorstep. Americans would sit back and watch it explode on TV, and let Russians, Chinese and Koreans sort out the consequences."

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