Unoffical transation from Russian

STATEMENT�

BY DEPUTY OFFICIAL SPOKESMAN

OF THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF RUSSIA,

MR. B.N. MALAKHOV,

IN CONNECTION WITH THE ACCORD

ON HOLDING THE INTER-KOREAN SUMMIT

We sincerely welcome the accord of the North and South to hold the second inter-Korean summit at Pyongyang on August 28-30.� We expect that the modalities of this important event the significance of which goes far beyond the Asia-Pacific Region will be known soon after completion of the preparatory talks.

The decision to hold the meeting between the Chairman of the DPRK State Defense Committee, Kim Jong Il, and the President of the Republic of Korea, Roh Moo Hyun, proves that the trend to dialogue and cooperation is prevailing on the Korean Peninsula which was started by the first North-South Summit in June 2000. Russia has always been in favor of the steps by the two Korean states to peaceful unification of the Motherland by their own efforts.

We expect that the coming summit meeting would facilitate the strengthening of peace, stability and cooperation on the Korean Peninsula and in North-East Asia as a whole, would bring new political impetus to the process of settlement of the Korea nuclear issue and normalization of the DPRK�s relations with the key powers of the region and would also help to put into practice large-scale tripartite partnership projects of Russia, and the North and South of Korea.

August 8, 2007