MOSCOW, January 30 (RIA Novosti) - Talks on settling North Korea's Soviet-era debt to Russia have been suspended, a Russian deputy finance minister said Tuesday.
"We are not ready to make a decision yet," Sergei Storchak said.
North Korea owes over $8 billion to its neighbor Russia, the legal successor of the Soviet Union.
Trade between the two countries totaled $240 million in 2005, and $140 million in the first nine months of 2006. Forestry continues to dominate bilateral trade.