MOSCOW. Aug 8 (Interfax) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has a long-standing invitation to visit Russia and the timing of the visit can be discussed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at Monday press conference in Moscow.
"The only thing I will say with regard to a new top-level contact [between Russia and North Korea] is that Mr. Kim Jong-Il has had an invitation to come to Russia for a visit for a long time," he said.
"The timing and other aspects of organizing it are to be coordinated by the sides," Lavrov added.
The Russian side "regularly discusses the situation on the Korean peninsula with the North Korean leadership, including the need to break the current stalemate at the six-nation talks on the nuclear problem. However, important as this issue is, our relations with Pyongyang are not limited to it," he said.
Relations between Russia and North Korea "have old traditions that rest on the principles of friendship and neighborliness," Lavrov said.
Moscow and Pyongyang actively cooperate in the humanitarian, trade and economic spheres and in education, he said.
"We are interested in North Korea moving forward, resolving its domestic problems in a way that would promote the general normalization of the situation in Northeast Asia," he said.
"We regularly and thoroughly discuss these issues with the North Korean leadership," he added.
Asked to comment on rumors of Kim Sung-Il's intentions to visit Russia last June, Lavrov said, "As for the June rumors, they have been commented on on a sufficient scale in the past."