MOSCOW. May 23 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the standoff over North Korea's nuclear program should be resolved through negotiations.
"Our opinion is that a decision should be made during talks, rather than through a more extensive arms race, especially if it involves nuclear weapons," Lavrov said in an interview with Japan's Kyodo Tsushin news agency.
Russia's position on ways to end the dispute surrounding North Korea's nuclear program is well known, the minister said. "We favor a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," he said.
"It is important to sustain the six-sided negotiating process in Beijing as the most optimal mechanism to resolve the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula. It is important to resume them as soon as possible and continue searching for a compromise that will allow the U.S. and North Korea to settle their disputes," the minister said.
"The main task today is to stop the region from unraveling in a spiral of tension, which poses a threat to security and the national interests of Russia and other Northeast Asian nations," Lavrov said.