North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun landed in the Russian capital for a 48-hour visit held against the backdrop of a Russia-US summit that is set to clinch a long-discussed nuclear disarmament deal.

But while joining the US-led campaign against terror in Afghanistan and negotiating on nuclear weapons, Russia has also opened up to the isolated regime of North Korea under President Vladimir Putin, who is keen to spread Moscow's influence in the Far East.

Moscow introduced a sour note to the Bush-Putin summit Monday by dismissing Washington's charges that the Stalinist regime had supplied long-range missiles to other threatening nations.

"There are certain fears in the West about North Korea trading missile technology," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov was quoted as saying by Interfax.

"These matters do not raise any great concern here," Losyukov stressed.

The senior Russian diplomat added that recent international developments "should not obstruct the improvement of relations between Russian and North Korea."

He further spoke of a "very favorable atmosphere in relations" between the two sides.

Losyukov's comments came two days after foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko noted that "while we do not share certain ideological or political concepts with our partners, we must seek to build closer ties to friendly nations."

Russia had all but abandoned its Soviet-era partner following Communism's fall, boosting trade with South Korea while North Korea's economy imploded from lack of assistance from Moscow.

But with Putin's election, ties between the two nations have begun to rebuild.

The Stalinist regime's leader Kim Jong-Il took an epic train ride across Russia last summer, making his first international diplomatic trip outside of China.

Kim is expected to visit Russia's Far East again later this year, and North Korean officials said that Paek was bringing with him a message from Kim to Putin.

Russian officials have said little about what may be discussed between Paek and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov Tuesday, although Interfax cited Moscow sources as saying that "military technical cooperation" may feature on the agenda.

The two sides are also likely to discuss a Pyongyang request for Russia to costruct a nuclear reactor for North Korea, an idea viewed with grim skepticism by the United States.

Paek for his part told ITAR-TASS -- one of the only foreign media groups allowed in North Korea -- that Pyongyang highly rated Russia's role as a stabilizing force in the Far East.

North Korea hopes that Russia "will continue in the future to play a just, positive role in achieving peace and a union between North and South Korea," Paek told ITAR-TASS.

He added that Russia had expressed its demands on the United States to withdraw its 37,000 soldiers now stationed in South Korea during talks between Kim and Putin last year.

"Russia has voiced its understanding that the withdrawal of the US troops cannot wait, and that such a withdrawal will secure peace and stability in northeast Asia," Paek said.

Analysts said that Washington and Seoul agree that a limited US force should stay on in South Korea even after possible reunification of the divided peninsula. But Moscow has frowned on the idea.

earlier related report
New Gloom As North Retreats Behind Barbed Wire Mentality
A new gloom has descended on the Korean peninsula ahead of a critical year for the two Koreas, a key international think-tank warned in a report released last Tuesday.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said the "Sunshine Policy" of engagement of the South's President Kim Dae-Jung had collapsed and that the tough talking of US President George W. Bush would make any kind of engagement difficult.

But its annual strategic survey warned that a number of looming deadlines and timetables meant the North and its "erratic" supreme leader Kim Jong-Il could not be ignored.

The London institute highlighted how a North Korean moratorium on testing long-range missiles would end in 2003 when a new, probably more conservative, administration is to take office in the South.

Next year is also the theoretical target date for completion of two light water reactors in North Korea by a US-led international consortium. But the project, given in return for the North freezing its suspected nuclear weapons programme in 1994, is already hopelessly delayed.

"The danger of continuing to ratchet the tensions upwards is that North Korea will live up to its reputation for creating a crisis in order to force the United States and its allies to come to terms with it," said the IISS.

"The issue for 2003 is whether both sides' rational interests in pursuing a diplomatic approach take hold or Pyongyang's penchant for risk-taking and Washington's deep distrust and hostility towards the North combine to create a crisis that nobody wants."

The institute said President Kim's "Sunshine Policy" had unravelled since his historic summit with the North's Kim in Pyongyang in June 2000 and the North's hostility to Bush's scepticism of its leadership had completed the policy's collapse.

Domestic scandals have increased public disenchantment with President Kim among the South Korean public.

The IISS said relations between Seoul and Pyongyang had now returned to "normal tensions" that have marked most of their hostile co-existence since the division of the peninsula in 1945 and the 1950-53 Korean War, which has never been officially ended with a peace treaty.

"Part of the problem lay with Kim Jong-Il, whose vacillations and erratic behaviour made it difficult for Kim Dae-Jung to continue to offer carrots while requiring little or nothing in return."

According to the institute, North Korea has "not only retreated behind its accustomed barbed-wire mentality when viewing the outside world but also upended expectations that it was planning an approach to domestic economic reforms along Chinese lines."

The problems facing the international community in dealing with North Korea remain much the same as they have for decades, said the IISS.

North Korea could threaten to resume missile tests, plutonium production and even hint at an attack on the South. But the insistute said it could then lose the precious international aid without which it cannot survive.

The United States could try to "starve" the North Korean regime, which Bush has called "evil" but it has fewer military possibilities than against other so-called "rogue" states such as Iraq.

China would have a strong influence on both sides of the conflict line.

"For these reasons, the Bush administration, like its predecessor, may find that it has little choice but to pursue diplomatic options with the North, no matter how distasteful and difficult," concluded the study.

Related Links
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express