ABSTRACT
Russia's efforts for Korean peace regime building are discernable in two aspects. The first aspect includes Russia's unilateral diplomatic initiatives in bilateral settings to suggest ideas, urge calm, and provide good offices. The second aspect relates to Russia's activities in multilateral settings, that is, the Six-Party Talks (SPT), a multilateral security mechanism for Northeast Asia, and the United Nations Security Council. President Vladimir Putin initially promoted Russia's image as an honest broker or a messenger between Pyongyang and the outside world. Moscow maintains an image as a disinterested mediator for peace in Korea, but has often been critical more of US hard line policy than of North Korea's stubborn, inflexible position. Moscow volunteered to remove a snag impeding a US Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) nuclear deal over the Banco Delta Asia (BDA) issue. The UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution, which condemned the tests, paving the road for the international community to impose economic sanctions against North Korea.
