Following the first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia will consider working to offer international security guarantees to North Korea.
President Putin met Kim Jong-Un for a summit in the eastern city of Vladivostok, where they were pictured smiling and shaking hands ahead of talks focusing on Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, economic sanctions, and North Korean migrants in Russia.
President Putin told reporters that the North Korean Leader sought de-nuclearisation for which he needed security guarantees. While the Russian president said that it would be early to say that there will be any substantial guarantees, he believes that first steps were needed to increase the countries’ trust in each other.
Russia supports the completion of the de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula – sharing the same view with Washington.
The Russia-North Korea summit came just two months after Kim Jong-Un met with US President Donald Trump, in which both parties were incapable of resolving the conflict over North Korea’s nuclear programme.
North Korea wants to ease economic sanctions that have been imposed due to its building nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.
Kim Jung-Un had asked President Putin to inform Washington of his position. Vladimir Putin said he will discuss it with the US and China.
At the beginning of the meeting, the Russian president comforted Kim by welcoming his efforts to normalise Pyongyang’s relations with the US.
Conversely, Kim Jong-Un said that this summit will help to jointly evaluate the Korean peninsula issues and harmonise their positions.
The summit reflects Russia’s effort to position itself as a key player in the North Korean nuclear standoff.
Andrei Lankov professor at Seoul’s Kookmin University and expert on North Korea believes that North Korea will unlikely denuclearization.
He said that the country “will never surrender nuclear weapons.”
This will be unlikely the last summit which we will see this year as the US and North Korea have voiced their interest in meeting again.
