MOSCOW. Feb 10 (Interfax) - Moscow hopes that intensive contacts with North Korea this year will help ensure peace and security in Northeast Asia, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin said at a reception at the North Korean Embassy on Tuesday on the occasion of the 69th birthday of North Korean leader and State Defense Committee chief Kim Jong-il.
"We have every reason to assert that the basic principles of the Russian-Korean interstate Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighborly Relations and Cooperation, and the agreements reached between the Russian and North Korean leaders, meet the interests of our peoples, contributing to the maintaining of peace and security in Northeast Asia," Borodavkin said.
Today's event at the North Korean Embassy "coincides with one more important historical event in Comrade Kim Jong-il's foreign-policy activities - the 11th anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighborly Relations and Cooperation, signed on February 9 2000," which laid a solid foundation for promoting friendly and comprehensive relations between the two countries, Borodavkin also said.
Noting that Russian-North Korean cooperation was intensive last year, he said that Russia expects bilateral relations to retain their high pace this year.
"We also hope that conditions will be created for the earliest possible resumption of the Six-Party Talks on the nuclear problem of the Korean peninsula. We will continue to cooperate with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for the sake of attaining the common goal of turning the Korean peninsula into a nuclear free zone, and guaranteeing security and stable socioeconomic development in all countries of the region," Borodavkin said.
Russia has been "a consistent advocate of inter-Korean dialogue for the sake of ending tensions on the peninsula," he said.
"We see no alternative to the normalization of political relations between the two Korean states, and we are prepared to help launch energy, transport and other joint economic projects on the Korean peninsula," he said.
"President Dmitry Medvedev has sent a message of greetings to Comrade Kim Jong-il on the occasion of his 69th birthday," said Borodavkin.