Russia, N. Korea may exchange high-level parliamentary visits in 2015 - diplomat
MOSCOW. March 20 (Interfax) - Moscow and Pyongyang are working on an exchange of high-level parliamentary delegations in 2015, director of the First Asian Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Andrey Kulik said.
"A visit of the chairman of the North Korean Supreme People's Assembly Choe Thae Bok to Moscow in 2015 is in the schedule. We are working on the organization of a visit of Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko to Pyongyang," Kulik said at a reception at the North Korean embassy in Moscow on Thursday.
A stable military and political situation on the Korean Peninsula is an important perquisite for the development of fruitful Russian-North Korean cooperation, he said.
In connection with this, Kulik expressed certainty that "the North Korean authorities will show political wisdom and pragmatism and will not yield to explicit provocations of destructive forces that are not interested in maintaining peace and promoting mutually advantageous cooperation in the region."
Such a reaction by North Korea to the annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises will receive the highest assessment from all peace-loving nations, he said.
Meanwhile, North Korean Ambassador to Russia Kim Yong Jae noted at the reception a high level of tensions in the region over the U.S. policy and urged to immediately stop the joint U.S.-South Korean Key Resolve and Foul Eagle maneuvers "that are becoming a cancerous tumor for peace on the Korean Peninsula and Northeastern Asia."
North Korea will respond to U.S. actions with both conventional and nuclear arms and "will respond to their attempts to 'destroy' North Korea in a cyber war with unpredictable cyber-attacks of our own."
Speaking about the development of bilateral relations with Korea, Kim noted that the sides are working on big economic projects, in particular the modernization and reconstruction of North Korean railroads has started and an agreement with Russia's RusHydro on power supplies to the Rason Special Economic Zone has been reached.
"Favorable conditions and situation are being created to serve economic ties, in particular an agreement on debt settlement has taken effect, banks of the two countries switched to settlements in rubles and Russian businessmen are issued multi-entry visas," the ambassador said.