Russia has called on North Korea to halt its uranium enrichment programme and re-admit UN nuclear monitors to pave the way for international talks.
Pyongyang said yesterday it was moving ahead with uranium enrichment at its Yongbyon plant, which foreign powers believe opens a second route to the potential construction of a nuclear weapon along with its plutonium programme.
Moscow called for inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear body, to examine a programme which North Korea says is for domestic power generation.
"The consistent implementation of the uranium programme in North Korea cannot but create serious worry," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
"We call on our North Korean partners to ... announce a moratorium on all nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment, and invite IAEA specialists to examine the uranium enrichment facility at its Yongbyon nuclear centre," it said.
Six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia broke down in 2008, and UN inspectors were expelled from North Korea in 2009.
The Russian statement said that halting nuclear activities including enrichment, and inviting inspectors, would "create favourable conditions for the resumption the six-party talks".
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who visited Russia in September, has said the talks should resume without preconditions, but Seoul and Washington have said Pyongyang must first halt its nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment.
Russia has repeatedly urged North Korea to abide by UN resolutions and a 2005 disarmament agreement, but has warned the US and South Korea that an excessively aggressive stance could be counter-productive.
US state department spokesman Mark Toner said yesterday that the US remained concerned about North Korea's uranium enrichment programme, which he said violates UN resolutions and the 2005 agreement.
The 2005 agreement does not specifically refer to the North's uranium enrichment programme, which analysts say is a potential loophole Pyongyang could use to push ahead with it.
Discussions between the North and the US in October brought no breakthrough on resuming the six-party talks.
Reuters