Luis Enrique Ascui Gennady Chufrin, deputy director at the Russian Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Moscow.

Russia’s highest priority in the Asia-Pacific region is the Korean Peninsula, a Russian professor and specialist in international relations said here Feb. 23.

Gennady Chufrin, deputy director at the Russian Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Moscow, told an audience at the Asia Pacific Security Conference 2004 that the North Korean situation was his country’s largest security issue.

“As the situation there remains unstable, Russia seeks to make its presence on the crisis. This issue is what worries Russia most,” said Chufrin during the day’s second panel discussion, “Strategic Trends in the Asia Pacific.”

Russia maintains “a strong belief” that a peaceful solution through dialogue is possible, but warned that the current North Korean nuclear crisis was “only a transitory event” in an area with a long history of crises.

“Security in and around the [Korean] peninsula presents an immediate and high security risk across the 38th parallel,” said Chufrin.

The Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, a think-tank affiliated with Singapore’s Nayang Technological University, and Asian Aerospace Pte. Ltd. jointly produced the conference. Defense News is the official media partner for the event.

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