Kim Jong-il to visit Russia

Forum Contacts RSS		RUSSIAN

RIA Novosti, PUBLISHED June 29, 2011

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is expected to pay a visit to Russia and meet President Dmitry Medvedev in Russia's Far East city of Vladivostok, South Korean Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday, although Russia's foreign minister denied knowledge of such a meeting.

This would become Kim's second visit to Russia since 2002, when he met with current Prime Minister and then president Vladimir Putin.

The sides are expected to discuss economic cooperation and security.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday he had no information about a possible meeting between Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev and Kim Jong-il.

The North Korean nuclear issue also remains a hot topic between the two nations. Russia is a member of the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions which came to a halt in April 2009 when North Korea walked out of negotiations to protest the United Nations' condemnation of its ballistic missile tests.

North Korea is banned from conducting nuclear or ballistic missile tests under UN Resolution 1718, adopted after Pyongyang's first nuclear test on October 9, 2006.

However, the country carried out a second nuclear test on May 25, 2009, followed by a series of short-range missile launches, and has threatened to build up its nuclear arsenal to counter what it calls hostile U.S. policies.

Topics: Asia, DPRK, Russia

Other news:

U.S. lifts market restrictions against Rosatom

Rosatom will no longer be required to get a special license from the U.S. Department of Commerce to cooperate with American companies.

New chemical elements synthesized by Russian team recognized

Element 114 was first synthesized in December 1998 by bombarding plutonium nuclei with calcium nuclei, which have 94 and 20 protons respectively.

Russia lacks personnel to dismantle nuclear sites

Russia is to decommission and dismantle 42 nuclear facilities by 2015 and 188 by 2020, Rosatom department head Yevgeny Komarov said.

Hero of the day

Alexander Chistozvonov: end of the Romantic period

Today, the army of managers is earnestly believing that one can take the man responsible for the licensing of alcoholic beverages, and put it on licensing, and even to supervise the nuclear reactor.

INTERVIEW

Christophe Behar
We are preparing now a review of these design options and the decision has to be made in 2012, by the public authorities. ASTRID basic and detailed design will be launched afterwards.

OPINION

Dmitry Kosyrev
Asia cannot be split into pro-China and anti-China camps because of economic and other realities, including Mother Nature herself.