S. Korea's top nuke envoy to visit Russia next week

SEOUL - South Korea's top nuclear envoy will make a three-day visit to Russia next week after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) expressed its willingness to resume the long-suspended six-party talks without preconditions, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday.

Hwang Joon-kook, Seoul's chief negotiator for the talks on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, will visit Moscow from Dec 1 to 3 to meet with his Russian counterpart Igor Margulov, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The two diplomats will discuss how to deal with the DPRK's nuclear issue, while sharing each other's assessment on overall situations on the Korean Peninsula, the ministry said. Hwang will also meet with experts and officials on the peninsula issue to make a comprehensive exchange of opinion on the DPRK issues.

Hwang's visit would come after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Nov 20 that the DPRK is ready to resume six-party talks without preconditions. His comments were made after talks with Choe Ryong Hae, who made an eight-day visit to Russia last week as a special envoy of top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un.

The six-party talks, which involves China, the DPRK, the United States, South Korea, Russia and Japan, were initiated in Beijing in August 2003 but have stalled since December 2008.