By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : A delegation of Russian diplomats led by the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service head has held talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, the Korean Central News Agency reported.
The talks in the North Korean capital were held in a “warm and friendly atmosphere” and ended in a dinner at which FIS chief Mikhail Fradkov presented gifts to Kim and his son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, the agency said.
Officials from the North Korean foreign ministry and Workers’ Party were also present at the meeting.
Russia, the US, China, Japan and South Korea have been trying for the past two years to resume stalled talks with North Korea over its nuclear programme.
The talks came to a halt in April 2009 when North Korea walked out of negotiations in protest against the UN’s condemnation of its missile tests. The country is banned from conducting nuclear or ballistic missile tests under a UN resolution adopted after Pyongyang’s first nuclear test Oct 9, 2006.
North Korea carried out a second nuclear test May 25, 2009, followed by a series of short-range missile launches, and has threatened to build up its nuclear arsenal.