DEMARCHE ON RUSSIAN ENERGY ASSISTANCE TO NORTH

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 001028 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/15/2018 TAGS: PREL EAID ENRG KNNP PARM KN RS SUBJECT: DEMARCHE ON RUSSIAN ENERGY ASSISTANCE TO NORTH KOREA UNDER SIX PARTY TALKS REF: SECSTATE 37981 Classified By: Political M/C Alice G. Wells. Reasons 1.4 (B/D). ¶1. (C) We delivered April 14 reftel demarche to Oleg Davydov, MFA Korea Desk Senior Counselor and GOR representative to the Six-Party Economy and Energy Cooperation Working Group. Davydov reaffirmed Russia's continued commitment to the Six - Party Process and provided the following official response: -- The GOR remains committed to the Talks' main goal -- the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula -- and its obligations stipulated in the October 3 2007 Agreement. -- The GOR is undergoing inter-agency discussions to sort out the details of the next shipment. While the MFA is fully on board, it has no control over the Ministry of Finance, which oversees the actual delivery. -- Davydov expressed frustration at the lack of a clear time table and frequent last-minute notices by the U.S. He claimed that he was unable to participate in the December 12 Beijing meeting because it was called with little advance notice. Instead Russia sent a counselor working in the Russian Embassy in Beijing, who had little authority to carry out negotiations. As a result, the agreements reached in Beijing were not well vetted by involved Russian government agencies. For instance, the GOR did not agree to the teaming up of China and South Korea for HFO-equivalent assistance, and the U.S. and Russia for HFO assistance to North Korea. The agreement is not just a political document but has financial components that needs to be gauged by each country's capabilities. ¶2. (C) In a separate conversation, we spoke with Vadim Grishin, Chief of Staff to Finance Minister Kudrin. Grishin told us that in the morning of April 15, DPM Naryshkin chaired an inter-ministerial meeting on this issue, during which a consensus on next steps was reached. Grishin was cautiously optimistic that a delivery could be made by the end of April. BURNS