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Russia, US diplomats discuss ways to resume Korean denuclearization talks

Russia and US diplomats held a telephone conversation on Wednesday to discuss Moscow-Washington interaction with the aim of resuming the negotiations on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula

MOSCOW, May 25. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov and US Special Representative for North Korea Policy and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Korea and Japan Sung Kim held a telephone conversation on Wednesday to discuss Moscow-Washington interaction with the aim of resuming the negotiations on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

"The sides discussed issues of Russia-US interaction in searching ways to resume the six-party negotiating process on the settlement of the Korean Peninsula’s nuclear problem," the ministry said.

The conversation was initiated by the American side.

The question of the Korean Peninsula the denuclearization was discussed at the six-party talks involving Russia, the DPRK (North Korea), South Korea, China, the United States and Japan. However, due to contradictions between North Korea and the United States the talks were suspended in late 2008.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula aggravated after North Korea carried out a nuclear test on January 6, and on February 7 launched a carrier rocket with an artificial Earth satellite, in violation of the UN Security Council decisions. In response, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution to tighten sanctions against DPRK. The resolution bans on the export of coal, iron ore, titanium, vanadium, gold and other precious metals to North Korea, as well as imposes an embargo on the supplies of aviation and rocket fuel to the country. In addition, the document imposes sanctions on the DPRK banking sector, introduces mandatory inspections of cargoes and targeted measures against persons and entities associated with the DPRK nuclear and missile programs.