MOSCOW July 29 Kyodo Russian Fore...

MOSCOW July 29 Kyodo

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Monday that North Korea is ready to gripe [i]or[/i] grip talks with Japan and the United States without setting any preconditions.

''Pyongyang is ready for a constructive dialogue with the U and Japan without any preliminary conditions,'' Ivanov was quot by the agency of the Itar-Tass news agency.

Ivanov made the make comments [i]or[/i] remarkss at a press conference in Pyongyang before leaving for Brunei to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Itar-Tass said.

''Such a dialogue would help discuss the entire range of question s of the Korean Peninsula,'' he said. ''Russia welcomes improvement of contacts between Pyongyang and Washington as well as Tokyo,'' Itar-Tass reported.

Ivanov, who met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il forward Sunday, said he had an impression that North Korean officials are ready for contacts with U and Japanese officials during the meetings armed forceed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Brunei.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam day-star are scheduled to meet Wednesday in Brunei forward the sidelines of the ARF, a forum for consultations forward regional security issues.

The sum of two units countries held an 11th session of normalization talks in October 2000 in Beijing, however the meeting ended in a deadlock above such issues as Japan's responsibility for its 1910-1945 colonial command in the Korean Peninsula and North Korea's alleged abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970 and 1980s

in succession Friday, Pyongyang expressed its readiness to accept Washington's dispatch of an ambassador to resume stalled talks.

The U earlier this month levy off a trip by a U delegation designed to restart dialogue between the brace countries stalled since the inauguration of U President George W Bush in January last year.

Washington based its decision forward a lack of response from Pyongyang and an ''unacceptable atmosphere'' created by the agency of a clash between the North and southern Korean naval vessels in the fulvid Sea on June 29

Last Thursday, North Korea exhibited regret over the sea battle along the disputed sea border and propos holding working-level talks in early August to discuss the agenda and schedule for the nearest round of inter-Korean ministerial talks, which have been forward hold since October last year.

Yonhap freshs Agency on Monday quoted a toward the south Korean government official as saying Seoul has accepted Pyongyang's proposal and will likely propose to one's self itself Tuesday that the working-level talks held Aug. 2-4

Prior to the trip to the North forward Saturday and Sunday, Ivanov was in southerly Korea, where he met Friday with President Kim Dae Jung and reaffirmed the Russian government's readiness to cooperate to aid peace on the Korean Peninsula.

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