N. Korea: Talks could include uranium work

SEOUL, March 15 (UPI) -- North Korea's uranium enrichment activities could be part of the stalled nuclear talks when they resume, Pyongyang told a visiting Russian diplomat Tuesday.

The unidentified North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said his country was ready to rejoin the so-called six-party talks "without any precondition" and hoped to work on the "principle of simultaneous action," Yonhap News Agency reported.

A South Korean official said the comments reported by North Korea's state-run media didn't mean much.

"Our position is that the right conditions should be created for six-party talks, and therefore we don't attach much meaning" to the comments concerning North Korea's uranium enrichment activities, the South Korean official told Yonhap.

Talks on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States have been stalled since 2008.

North Korea's call for no preconditions for talks to resume indicates Pyongyang likely won't address Seoul's requirement that North Korea take tangible steps to demonstrate its commitment to denuclearization, the South Korean official said. Late last year, North Korea revealed a uranium enrichment plant that could be used to make nuclear arms. Officials in Pyongyang said it would only generate electricity.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin, Russia's top envoy to the six-party talks, ended his four-day trip to North Korea Monday.

During his visit, the minister suggested the Koreas could work with Russia on joint ventures involving railway, gas pipelines and power lines, saying such an effort could help ease inter-Korean tension, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said.

North Korean officials "expressed support for the projects of the Russian side for tripartite economic cooperation and manifested its willingness to positively examine the proposal," the KCNA said.