RUSSIA WANTS N KOREA TO SCRAP NUKE WEAPONS AT SAME TIME AS LWR PROVISION.

SEOUL, Nov 1 Asia Pulse - Russia on Tuesday proposed that the provision of light-water reactors (LWRs) to North Korea and the North's dismantling of nuclear weapons should take place simultaneously.

"Here you see an issue of mutual mistrust. The only solution, therefore, is all the steps synchronize," Russian Ambassador to Seoul, Glev A. Ivashentsov said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. "Any preconditions may lead to mistrust and a lack of trust may delay the process."

The Russian envoy was talking about the differing positions between Pyongyang and Washington on the joint statement signed at the end of the fourth round of six-party talks in Beijing in early September.

During the talks on ending the North's nuclear ambitions, the parties produced a joint statement on providing a security guarantee and LWRs and other economic benefits to North Korea in return for the North's abandonment of its nuclear weapons and related programs.

Washington and Pyongyang, however, are at odds over the parts of the joint statement relating to an "early date" for North Korea's return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and an "appropriate time" for the parties to begin talks on providing LWRs to the North.

Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator, has said, "The appropriate time comes when the DPRK (North Korea) gets rid of its nuclear weapons, gets rid of its nuclear programs, comes back into the NPT and comes back into full IAEA safeguards."

North Korea, however, said it will return to the NPT and allow IAEA inspections only after receiving LWRs from the United States, heralding a row in the upcoming fifth round of the talks in early November.