DATE=13/08/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-306341

TITLE=RUSSIA / KOREA (S)

BYLINE=BILL GASPERINI

DATELINE=MOSCOW

CONTENT=

INTRO: Russia is holding separate talks with diplomats from North and South Korea Tuesday in an effort to ease tensions over North Korea's nuclear program. Bill Gasperini has more from Moscow.

TEXT: The aim of the talks, says Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyko, is to seek "a greater sense of trust" between the two Koreas.

North Korea went into the meeting with a demand that the United States sign a firm security guarantee before it would agree to halt its program to develop nuclear weapons.

Mr. Losyukov says Russia is in favor of a multilateral security arrangement if it would defuse the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula.

Mr. Losyukov has just returned from Beijing, the expected venue of the six-party talks that are expected to start at the end of August. He says China is also prepared to address the security issue.

The high-level diplomacy comes after months of tension built-up since last October, when North Korea admitted that it had a program to develop nuclear weapons despite an agreement almost ten years ago to halt the program.

The crisis escalated when the North expelled United Nations nuclear inspectors and backed out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. (Signed)

NEB/milan