Moscow dismissed as “rumors” a report that North Korea had offered Russia exclusive access to its uranium deposits in exchange for Russian support in multilateral talks aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear program, the Associated Press reports.

Japanese daily Tokyo Shimbun on Dec.3 cited unnamed Russian officials as saying Pyongyang had offered Russia exclusive rights to import North Korean uranium, which Russia would then enrich and export as nuclear fuel to China and Vietnam.

“We don’t know who they are citing, which is why we are not going to comment on these rumors at the moment,” Sergei Novikov, chief spokesman for Russian nuclear agency Rosatom, told AFP on Dec. 4.

The paper said the two countries had secretly been in talks since 2002 on the deal, but Pyongyang had recently warmed to the idea, offering to grant the rights in exchange for Russian support in six-sided talks on the North Korean nuclear program.

Multilateral talks featuring North Korea, South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia, broke down late last year when the North Koreans walked out in protest over US financial sanctions.

Pyongyang agreed about a month ago to return to the talks, after testing a nuclear bomb and being slapped with UN Security Council sanctions.

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