MOSCOW, July 19 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow hopes the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear problem in Beijing will make significant progress, an official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. "The Russian side, which has consistently advocated that the nuclear problem be settled by way of negotiations, welcomes this decision and expresses the hope that significant progress will be achieved at the talks in Beijing," Alexander Yakovenko said. The six-party negotiations on the North Korean nuclear program are scheduled to resume on July 26.
Both the Korean and Chinese foreign ministries confirmed this information.
Diplomats from Russia, North Korea, the Republic of Korea, the United States, China, and Japan will participate in the negotiations. After the three rounds of talks held in Beijing since August 2003, the negotiations reached deadlock due to political disagreements between North Korea and the U.S.
On February 12, 2005, North Korea officially announced it possessed nuclear weapons.
