Russia to write off most of N Korea debt-Ifax

MOSCOW, Feb 14 (Reuters) Russia will write off much of North Korea's 8 billion dollar debt to Moscow regardless of yesterday's deal on Pyongyang's nuclear programme, Interfax agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying today.

''We are finishing, regardless of this situation (the deal), our negotiations to settle Pyongyang's debt to Russia, and I think that this will be a contribution to the improvement of the financial and economic situation in North Korea,'' Lavrov said in Abu Dhabi.

''This is done on various kinds of terms but, under any set of circumstances, it will be a drastic reduction of the debt.'' Under yesterday's breakthrough agreement, Pyongyang will freeze the reactor at the heart of its nuclear programme and allow international inspections on the site in return for about 300 million dollar worth of aid.

The accord was reached by North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China four months after the secretive state stunned the world by testing a nuclear device.

Delegations from the Russian and North Korean finance ministries held debt talks in Moscow in December, but no official information about their agenda or outcome was issued.

Konstantin Pulikovsky, co-chairman of an inter-governmental commission between Russia and North Korea, told RIA news agency last month that Pyongyang was unlikely to be able to make any debt repayment at that stage.

Media reported one of the options was to write off at least 80 percent of the debt, mainly piled up during decades of the Cold War alliance between communist North Korea and the Soviet Union.

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