1. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, who is on a visit to the Philippines to attend ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers’ meetings, and her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov discussed the North Korean nuclear issue and ways to enhance cooperation between the ROK and Russia on the sidelines of an official welcome dinner on August 6.

2. The two Ministers shared the view that the adoption of the new Security Council Resolution 2371, containing strong and effective measures aimed at blocking sources of revenue for North Korea’s WMD program, is a landmark achievement in addressing the North Korean nuclear issue. They also agreed to strengthen cooperation between the two countries to ensure that relevant Security Council resolutions are faithfully implemented.

3. Minister Kang said that at the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers’ meetings, she found out that ASEAN member countries’ perception about the threats posed by North Korea’s continued provocations and rapidly growing nuclear and missile capabilities was of a different dimension from the past. In this regard, she said that a separate statement on the Korean Peninsula issued by the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN created good conditions to handle the North Korean nuclear issue within various consultative mechanisms on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related meetings.

4. In particular, Minister Kang asked the Russian side to play a constructive role in urging North Korea to stop provocations, comply with its denuclearization obligations, and respond as early as possible to the ROK government’s efforts to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula and improve inter-Korean relations.

o Minister Lavrov stressed that the Russian government will closely work together with the ROK government to achieve the international community’s common goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula through peaceful means under the principle of no tolerance for a nuclear North Korea. He also said that the Russian side understands and supports the new ROK government’s North Korea policy, and offered to continue to strengthen related communications and cooperation between the two countries, making use of bilateral and multilateral events.

5. The two Ministers took note that the leaders of the two countries, in their meeting held on July 7 on the sidelines of the G20, had useful discussions on ways to make substantive progress in the ROK-Russia strategic cooperative partnership, and agreed to continue working-level and high-level consultations through various channels to implement the measures discussed by the leaders of the two countries.


* unofficial translation