MOSCOW, November 23. /TASS/. Russia thinks it important to issue guarantees to North Korea during the denuclearization process on the Korean Peninsula, Russia’s Permanent Representative to Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov said on Friday.
"Bearing in mind the fact that Pyongyang has taken a number of important steps towards denuclearization, it is logical to support these efforts," he said at a meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "Our partners should keep in mind that negotiations are a two-way road and Pyongyang’s steps on the path of disarmament are to be met by similar steps towards easing the sanction pressure in line with provision 32 of Resolution 2375."
"It is becoming more and more important to elaborate security guarantees," he stressed. "Reliable international security mechanisms are necessary in the region to prevent recurrence of the situation which has developed around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program."
The IAEA, the world’s only international organization having necessary technical potential and experience, plays a central role in possible future verification of the Korean Peninsula’s denuclearization, Ulyanov stressed.
He also said that Russia is ready to train IAEA specialists at its nuclear facilities for inspections to North Korea.
"We think it is principally important to maintain the agency’s technical preparedness for the resumption of inspections in North Korea at a due level. We give credit to the efforts taken by the Department of Safeguards in this direction and are ready to continue our assistance to it, including by means of training IAEA inspectors at Russian nuclear facilities. The tasks for the inspections of North Korea’s nuclear program are unprecedentedly big and will require the most thorough preparations," he said.
He underscored that only specialists from the five nuclear powers must deal with issues of dismantling North Korea’s nuclear warfare potential. "The Agency is to implement large-scale tasks to ensure due account and control of the entire material beyond the frames of the nuclear warfare program, to attest that these materials are not rechanneled to military purposes and to monitor possible signs of undeclared nuclear activities," he said.
Russia, in his words, is ready for "close cooperation with all concerned countries in order to ensure peace, stability and comprehensive settlement of the Korean Peninsula’s problems."