Russia's top nuclear envoy held talks in North Korea on Monday, state media said, amid international efforts to garner condemnation of Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin had "friendly" discussions with Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun after arriving in the North Korean capital, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief report.

Pyongyang sparked regional security fears in November when it disclosed an apparently functional uranium enrichment plant to visiting US experts.

The North said it was a peaceful energy project but experts countered it could give the North a second way to make atomic bombs on top of its existing plutonium stockpile.

Six-party disarmament talks grouping the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States have been at a standstill since Pyongyang walked out in April 2009 and staged its second nuclear test a month later.

Seoul wants the UN Security Council to address the North's uranium programme, but an attempt last month to publish a UN report criticising the North flopped after opposition from Beijing.

Russia has backed South Korea's call for the Security Council to debate the North's uranium programme.

earlier related report

Japan to host S. Korea, China ministers despite quake
Seoul (AFP) March 14, 2011 –

A meeting of foreign ministers from Japan, South Korea and China will go ahead in the Japanese city of Kyoto despite the earthquake and tsunami that have devastated the country, Seoul said Monday.

Japan has told South Korea it will host the meeting of Northeast Asian neighbours as planned but cut it short into a single-day event on Saturday, foreign ministry spokesman Cho Byung-Jae told reporters.

The ministers were originally to meet Saturday and Sunday.

Cho said there would be no major changes to the agenda, but South Korea's Yonhap news agency said — citing an official — that the three would discuss relief and reconstruction measures for quake-ravaged Japan.

South Korea's Kim Sung-Hwan, China's Yang Jiechi and Japan's Takeaki Matsumoto will also discuss current regional issues, ways to forge closer ties and preparations for an upcoming trilateral summit, the ministry said.

Japan is the host for this year's annual summit, but the place and date are yet to be fixed.

More than 10,000 people are feared dead after huge tsunami sparked by major earthquakes swamped Japan's northeastern region and quake damage triggered a nuclear emergency at a power plant.

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