Anchor: Washington and Moscow have confirmed their differences on ways to denuclearize North Korea. Their top diplomats held talks in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: 

[Sound bite: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo]
"We also discussed North Korea and its nuclear program. The United States and Russia agree on the goal of the denuclearization, and we’ll continue to discuss it." 

After talks that lasted for more than three hours in Sochi on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed their differences on how to denuclearize North Korea. 

[Sound bite: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo]
"I underscored that we must maintain full implementation of the UN sanctions until the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea is achieved. And our two teams have been working very closely together on this in a very productive fashion." 

At the joint news conference, the top Russian diplomat represented North Korea, which has wanted to prevent the U.S. from deploying its strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula. 

[Sound bite: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (Russian)]
"Naturally, we highlighted that the leadership of the DPRK expects certain guarantees of security of their country reciprocated by denuclearization, and that denuclearization should be expanded over the whole of the Korean Peninsula."

Pyongyang has set the scope of denuclearization to the entire Korean Peninsula, seeking to remove the presence of the U.S. nuclear deterrence over the region. 

The foreign ministerial talks came in the wake of the recent North Korea-Russia summit in Vladivostok last month. 

While struggling to improve strained ties over Russian meddling in U.S. elections, Pompeo and Lavrov only confirmed their differences on ways to handle Iran. The two sides also disagreed on Venezuela, with Lavrov expressing opposition to the U.S.' intervention of the Nicolas Maduro regime. 
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.

[Photo : YONHAP News]