Russia won't recognize N. Korea as nuclear power: Russian deputy FM

MOSCOW, Oct. 4 (Yonhap) -- Russia said Sunday it will not recognize North Korea as a nuclear power, noting the country is making multi-faceted efforts to resuscitate the six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

"It is never acceptable for Russia to effectively recognize North Korea's status as a nuclear possessing country," Igor Morgulov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency, conducted on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Russia's diplomatic ties with South Korea this year.

Morgulov is also Russia's top envoy to the six-party talks which have been dormant since 2008.

The recognition would be incompatible with Russia as one of the founding countries of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, he said, referring to the treaty the country forged with the U.S. in the late 1960's to ban growth of new nuclear powers.

While Russia is putting forth various suggestions for the resumption of the six-way denuclearization talks, Morgulov said that "it's too early to say when it will be resumed."

As the envoy from a largely North Korean-leaning member of the six-party forum, Morgulov came to the defense of the North's motive behind its nuclear weapons development.

"The fundamental cause of the emergence of the North Korean issue should be understood properly," he said, adding that North Korea had to virtually face hostile military alliances linking the U.S. to South Korea and Japan all alone.

"At the foundation of North Korea's choice of nuclear weapons were concerns over their own national security."

Against that backdrop, the North Korean nuclear issue can be settled only in a way that resolves political and military tensions throughout the region and the national security of Northeast Asian countries including North Korea is surely guaranteed, he highlighted.

Touching on the 25-year diplomatic ties between Seoul and Moscow, the deputy foreign minister lauded the bilateral relations as "a historic change" that has cemented mutual cooperation in various fields."

"For the past 25 years, the landscape of the South Korea-Russia relations has fundamentally changed, with Korea becoming one of Russia's most preferential collaboration partners in the Asia Pacific region."

Morgulov also presented a rosy prospect for three-nation economic cooperation involving the two Koreas and Russia, including a logistics project linking the Russian border city of Khasan to the North Korean port of Rajin.

In a pilot run of the project, South Korea brought in Russian coal via the Russia-North Korean route earlier this year.

"Success of this project will serve as a booster for other three-way cooperation projects," he said, "although the complex political and military situation on the Korean Peninsula, which sometimes turns into a military crisis, is the biggest stumbling block to the realization of the cooperation."

But the three-nation collaboration looks "prospective enough," he said, adding that North Korea has clearly shown interest in it.

pbr@yna.co.kr
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