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Delegations from South and North Korea to attend St. Petersburg’s IPU forum

The 137th assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union will take place in St. Petersburg between October 14 and 18

MOSCOW, September 26. /TASS/. Parliamentarian delegations both from South and North Korea’s intend to participate in the 137th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), due to be held in Russia’s St. Petersburg next month, Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper house, said.

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"South Korea has already provided a list of its delegation members for the 137th IPU Assembly," Matviyenko said in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily on Tuesday. "Lawmakers from North Korea have also expressed their intention of taking part in the upcoming forum."

"This is why we are waiting in St. Petersburg both delegations from South and North Koreas," she said.

The Russian Federation Council’s speaker also said that a decision regarding a possible meeting between the delegations of the neighboring countries within the frames of the IPU Assembly would be only up to make by representatives of South and North Koreas.

"Russia in the capacity of the hosting country will be providing an all-embracing support for the dialogue," Matviyenko said. "The ongoing conflict on the Korean Peninsula poses most dangerous consequences for the Asian-Pacific Region and the world on the whole."

"This is why we have to resort to the whole scope of diplomatic means and use any global arena to ease the currently tense situation and boost the efforts aimed at the political settlement," she said. "A meeting of parliamentarians representing both sides would definitely be the very first step taken from the current confrontation toward the dialogue."

The 137th assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union will take place in St. Petersburg between October 14 and 18. This decision was taken at the 135th assembly in Geneva despite opposition from Ukraine and several other national delegations.

St. Petersburg earned 138 out of 159 votes during the balloting. The Inter-Parliamentary Union is the oldest (established in 1889) and one of the most authoritative international parliamentary organizations in the world in addition to being an informal parliamentary dimension of the UN. This Union has members from 170 countries and 11 inter-parliamentary unions are listed as associated members.

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