MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Moscow urges Washington and Pyongyang not to intentionally advance unrealistic demands in their dialogue, Artyom Kozhin, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Department said on Friday.
"It is clear that the process of rapprochement between the US and the DPRK and their abandonment of hostility and mistrust in relations, without which any lasting agreements are impossible, will take a long time and will necessitate well-calibrated moves to meet each other halfway," said the senior diplomat.
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"That is why we are calling on (the US and North Korea) to refrain from inflated expectations, and ask them not to knowingly advance unfeasible demands that may derail the process of negotiations," the diplomat stated.
He also was perplexed by an appeal to Russia from a US Department of State representative to cooperate with Washington on the Korean peninsula issue instead of acting against the US on that threat. "If this remark indeed reflects the position of the US Foreign Service, this can only raise eyebrows," Kozhin said.
He reiterated that during Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s trip to Pyongyang on May 31 and talks there, the Russian side "publicly expressed support for efforts by Pyongyang and Washington to normalize bilateral relations and hope for the success of a North Korea-US summit". "Moreover, the roadmap for the Korean settlement, shaped by Russia and China, points to a need to establish a direct US-North Korean dialogue," the diplomat stressed.
"We would like to hope that common sense will prevail in Washington and in practice it will engage in the pursuit for compromise solutions aimed at having a lasting peace in Northeast Asia, instead of ‘chasing ghosts’ where there are none," the diplomat stressed.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump said that the US was still planning to hold the first ever summit with North Korea in Singapore on June 12, despite the letter he had sent to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying he was pulling out of the summit because of Pyongyang’s hostile rhetoric.