S. Korean FM to Visit Russia to Discuss Inter-Korean Summit, Putin's VisitSouth Korean Foreign Minister Lee Joung-Binn will visit Moscow Wednesday for talks with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov on the outcome of this month's inter-Korean summit, officials said in Seoul.At the first foreign ministers' talks since the inauguration of Russian President Vladimir Putin government, Lee and Ivanov will also likely discuss the Russian leader's possible visit to South Korea, they said. Officials have not confirmed Putin's visit to South Korea, but Seoul's Yonhap News Agency said it could be "in the latter half of this year". Lee's visit follows the Kremlin's announcement that the Russian president would visit North Korea some time between July 10 and 20 en route to a Group of Eight leading industrial nations summit in Japan July 21-23. Lee is expected to explain what South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il agreed on at their June 13-15 summit in Pyongyang and ask for Russia's support for it, they said. Lee will travel to Moscow for his two-day visit after attending an international democracy forum in Warsaw, Poland, Monday and Tuesday. After the inter-Korean summit, deemed by South Koreans to have eased the decades-old enmity with North Koreans, Kim briefed Putin on the results and thanked the Russian leader for his backing for the historic meeting. South Korea has asked Russia to play "a constructive role" in helping to further ease tension with the North. South Korea has steadily expanded its relations with Russia, North Korea's key Cold-War ally, since 1990 wheh Seoul and Moscow formalised ties. Since the Seoul-Moscow normalization, relations between Russia and North Korea have steadily deteriorated to the point where Russia declared a Soviet-era defence treaty between the two countries as defunct. Ivanov visited Pyongyang in February to sign a watered-down replacement accord on defence cooperation. |
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