As the Russian Foreign Ministry has reported the situation around the nuclear programme of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was discussed on Wednesday during the telephone conversation of Igor Ivanov with the recently appointed minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade of the Republic of Korea Ban Ki Moon.
Igor Ivanov congratulated Ban Ki Moon on his appointment on this post and expressed confidence in the further development of relations of constructive partnership between the two states, a report of information and press department of the Russian Foreign Ministry says.
Speaking about the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula the ministers "expressed mutual striving to seek the solution of the problem through negotiations with due account for the interests of all the participants in the dialogue.
The first round of the talks between high-placed diplomats of the DPRK, the USA, South Korea, Russia, China, and Japan took place in August 2003 in Beijing. However, after this Pyongyang stated that the continuation of the dialogue was useless, having accused the United States of attempting to use the international arena for exerting pressure on North Korea.
Nevertheless, according to reports of the Japanese and South Korean press, the second round of the talks can take place in early February of this year.
