MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia will be trying to persuade North Korea to return to the negotiating table on the nuclear issue and cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We have been cooperating [with the United States] in the same way on the Iranian nuclear program, because we don't need new nuclear powers and at the same time we need to protect the universal right of every state to nuclear energy, which we did, once the agreement with Iran was reached. We don't need North Korea having nuclear weapons, nuclear-related ambitions and making threats. We will be working to influence it and return the situation to the negotiating table and cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency," Lavrov told Russia's REN-TV channel.
