US Secretary of State John Kerry is still waiting for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to return a telephone call to discuss North Korea’s nuclear test, a top US official confirmed on Thursday.
But, three days after Pyongyang’s underground explosion triggered global outcry, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the new top US diplomat was “relaxed” about the fact that Lavrov had not called back.
“The secretary would like to talk to him. It’s up to him whether he wants to take that opportunity,” Nuland said.
Lavrov has been travelling in Africa, and did issue a condemnation of North Korea’s nuclear tests in the hours after it was carried out and called for “an adequate response” by the UN Security Council.
“It’s not all that unusual in our recent experience that when Foreign Minister Lavrov is traveling he does not always engage in international phone calls on other subjects,” Nuland added.