By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia will supply 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil to North Korea Jan 20-21 in line with the six-nation deal to resolve the country’s nuclear problem, Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said.
“I think we will complete the delivery on Jan 20-21,” Alexander Losyukov said after talks in Moscow with the US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who arrived in Moscow for consultations with Russia, one of the countries involved in the talks on Pyongyang’s denuclearisation.
Amid concerns over the reclusive communist state’s failure to meet the deadline to disclose all its nuclear activities, Hill said the next round of six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme could take place this month.
Under a February 2006 deal made between the two Koreas, China, the US, Russia and Japan, Pyongyang had to decommission all of its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon and submit a complete list of its nuclear programmes by the end of 2007.
North Korea was promised economic and diplomatic incentives in return for the measures. Fuel aid shipments under the deal were delivered by South Korea and China last year.
Losyukov said: “North Korea cannot use this (the Russian fuel oil) as an excuse to drag its feet on denuclearisation process any longer.”
Russia has also offered North Korea a number of energy deals and the possibility of writing off part of Pyongyang’s Soviet-era debt if it continues to fulfil its commitment to complete nuclear disarmament.