Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday he was deeply worried by North Korea's capacity to enrich uranium which could be used to make nuclear weapons.

During a meeting with his North Korean counterpart Pak Ui-Chun, "Lavrov expressed his deep concern about information about the industrial uranium enrichment capability at Yongbyon," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Yongbyon has been for decades at the heart of North Korea's drive for nuclear weapons, with a now-ageing gas graphite reactor producing enough plutonium for possibly six to eight bombs.

Lavrov "called on North Korea to comply with UN Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874," said the statement.

Resolution 1874, which was adopted unanimously by the Security Council on June 12, 2009, imposes economic and trade sanctions on North Korea for failing to comply with resolution 1718 over its nuclear programme.

Moscow also called for a resumption of six-party talks on the programme.

"The Russian side noted that it was indispensable to relaunch the process of six-party talks on the North Korea issue," said Lavrov.

Russia is one of the six countries involved in the stalled talks alongside the two Koreas, China, Japan and the United States.

China proposed in late November to hold a new meeting but the idea has been cold-shouldered by Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.

Moscow, along with Beijing, has had warm relations with communist North Korea since the days of the old Soviet Union and has sought to ease tensions after North Korea's artillery attack on a South Korean island on November 23.

Talks between Lavrov and his North Korean opposite number are due to continue until Wednesday.

earlier related report
North Korean foreign minister in Moscow talks: official
Moscow (AFP) Dec 13, 2010 - North Korea's foreign minister held rare talks in Russia on Monday amid a flurry of diplomatic attempts to ease tensions following Pyongyang's deadly attack on a South Korean island last month.

Pak Ui-Chun is on a visit to Russia until Wednesday and was in talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on a number of issues, a spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry said.

"The talks are ongoing," the spokesman told AFP, saying it would be premature to comment further. "There are lots of issues there."

The meeting comes after the North's November 23 shelling of a South Korean island which left four dead including two civilians, the first shelling of civilian areas in South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean war.

South Korea's chief nuclear envoy is also expected to visit Russia for talks with his counterpart Alexei Borodavkin, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

Wi Sung-Lac will discuss the shelling and the North's disclosure last month of an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant.

The North's bombardment of the border island triggered a regional crisis and highlighted divisions between China, the North's sole major ally and key food and fuel source, and the United States on ways to restrain the hardline regime.

A member of the six-party forum on nuclear disarmament, Moscow condemned North Korea's attack, calling for an end to any hostilities.

But in contrast with the West, Russia has repeatedly said any opportunity to promote dialogue with Pyongyang should be used.

The North says it fired in response to a South Korean artillery drill that dropped shells into its waters near the contested border. The South says the North's attack was pre-planned.

While Pak's visit was long planned and reciprocates last year's North Korea visit by Lavrov, it also highlights Moscow's continuing importance as a regional mediator, said Alexander Zhebin, head of the Centre for Korean Research at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Far East Institute.

"If understanding of the steps needed to revive talks is found, it would be the main content and result of the visit," Zhebin told AFP. "This will mean that Russia will have played the role expected of her."

The North quit the six-party forum on nuclear disarmament in April 2009 and staged its second atomic weapons test a month later. The forum groups the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.