The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is not ready to return to the six-party talks yet, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday after a visit to Pyongyang.

Kim Yong Nam (L), president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Pyongyang, capital of DPRK, April 24, 2009. (Xinhua/KCNA)

“Our joint task is to create conditions towards the resumption of the negotiating process,” the Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.

Nevertheless, Lavrov believed that Russia’s repeated calling for resumption of the six-party talks have been heard by the DPRK.

“We were talking about it in Pyongyang. We felt that our arguments had been heard. We’re hoping all other participants in the six-party talks will demonstrate this approach,” he noted.

“The situation is difficult but not hopeless,” said Lavrov, stressing that yielding to emotions and making dramatic movements “may only worsen the situation.”

Lavrov said the UN Security Council is not planning new sanctions against DPRK, because sanctions are “counterproductive.”

“The UN Security Council, in its statement that has been adopted, has not introduced any sanctions, and the accords which are being drawn in New York, do not envision any new sanctions against DPRK,” he said.

Lavrov also said that nobody should use DPRK nuclear issues to step up military activities in the region, including by deploying missile defense systems.

“I am hopeful that no one will try to artificially unbalance the situation or especially to use it as a pretext to unleash an arms race in the region, to establish military-political blocs, to accelerate the creation of an anti-missile defense positional region, or even to abandon constitutional principles and declare a need to possess a nuclear missile potential,” he said.

Meanwhile Russia is ready to consider the possibility of launching DPRK satellites from its own territory, said the top diplomat.

“There is cooperation with the South Korea and we are ready to develop similar projects between Russia and the DPRK,” he said, adding that the Russian delegation had conveyed the message in Pyongyang.

“I hope the proposal will be examined,” he said.

Lavrov arrived in Pyongyang Thursday and left for Seoul Friday afternoon. Russian foreign ministry said Tuesday in a statement that the topics expected to be discussed during his trip include “the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.”

Russia has expressed “regret” over the DPRK’s decision to quit six-party talks after the UN Security Council adopted a presidential statement over its April 5 rocket launch.

The Russian top diplomat has earlier urged the DPRK to adhere to the six-party nuclear disarmament talks, to which Russia is a party.

“We hope … the six-party talks will soon resume in order to continue moving to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” he said last week.

The six-party talks also include China, the DPRK, South Korea, the United States and Japan.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet