Lavrov: Russia supports de-escalation on Korean Peninsula

Russia consistently supports steps toward lowering the tensions on the Korean Peninsula and abandoning confrontational rhetoric, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.

"Russia consistently favors steps toward lowering the tensions, switching from confrontational rhetoric to specific ways of looking for commonly acceptable settlement methods," Lavrov said at a meeting with visiting South Korean special presidential envoy Chung Eui-yong on Tuesday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) shakes hands with South Korean National Security Director Chung Eui-yong prior to their talks at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow, March 13, 2018.

Lavrov stressed that Russia welcomes Seoul's desire to build a broad front of participants in the settlement process on the Korean Peninsula.

Chung Eui-yong, for his part, asked Moscow to support all processes which Seoul thinks could lead to the resolution of the crisis on the Peninsula, in particular, the planned meetings between the leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (ROK), and the US-DPRK summit meeting.

Earlier this month, Chung Eui-yong visited Pyongyang and Washington, and helped to arrange summit meetings between DPRK and ROK leaders, and between the US and DPRK leaders in the following months.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)