Russia and North Korea will continue consultations aimed at preventing the escalation of the situation on the Korean Peninsula following the sinking of a south Korean warship, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said, RIA Novosti reported.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin has discussed the inter-Korean conflict with North Korea's Ambassador to Russia Kim Yong Jae, a statement posted on the ministry's website on Friday said.
"Both parties reaffirmed the need to prevent the further escalation of tensions in the region and expressed their readiness to continue consultations in order to look for ways to overcome the current inter-Korean crisis," the statement said.
Relations between the North and the South soured after Seoul accused Pyongyang of sinking the 1,200-ton South Korean Cheonan corvette. The vessel sank near the disputed Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea on March 26 causing the loss of 46 lives.
An international investigation later confirmed the suspicions that the ship was destroyed by a torpedo launched from a North Korean submarine.
North Korea, angered by the accusations, declared earlier this week it was cutting all ties with Seoul and scrapping an agreement on preventing accidental naval clashes with South Korea. The two countries remain technically at war as their 1950-1953 conflict ended only in an armistice.
South Korea has frozen economic relations and maritime communications with its northern neighbor. The decision is yet another blow for the North's economy already damaged by past UN sanctions intended to force Pyongyang to quit its nuclear program.
The South Korean Navy on Thursday started large-scale anti-submarine drills in the Yellow Sea as part of measures to counter any further attacks by North Korea. The exercises involve about 10 warships, which practice live artillery firing and dropping anti-submarine depth charges.
The international community has condemned the North of jeopardizing peace on the Korean Peninsula. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for the Security Council to take prompt actions against Pyongyang.
Philip Crowley, the assistant secretary to the U.S. Department of State, has said the United States China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea, who are involved in six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, should "send a very clear and compelling message" to the North Korean authorities to "choose a different path."
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent on Wednesday a group of Russian experts to South Korea to examine the results of the investigation into the Yellow Sea incident.
...