{"id":211351,"date":"2019-04-25T03:51:13","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T07:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=211351"},"modified":"2019-04-25T03:51:13","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T07:51:13","slug":"putin-kim-discuss-how-to-break-n-korean-nuclear-standoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/04\/25\/putin-kim-discuss-how-to-break-n-korean-nuclear-standoff\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin, Kim discuss how to break N. Korean nuclear standoff"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday they had good talks about their joint efforts to resolve a standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear program, amid stalled negotiations with the United States. (File Photo<\/a>: Blue House<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia \u2014 Russian President Vladimir\u00a0Putin\u00a0and North Korean leader\u00a0Kim\u00a0Jong Un said Thursday they had good talks about their joint efforts to resolve a standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear program, amid stalled negotiations with the United States.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the start of the discussions at a university on the Russky Island across a bridge from Vladivostok,\u00a0Putin\u00a0voiced confidence that\u00a0Kim’s visit will \u201chelp better understand what should be done to settle the situation on the Korean Peninsula, what we can do together, what Russia can do to support the positive processes going on now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim’s first trip to Russia comes about two months after his second summit with President Donald Trump failed because of disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on the North.\u00a0Putin\u00a0meanwhile wants to expand Russia’s clout in the region and get more leverage with Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome your efforts to develop an inter-Korean dialogue and normalize North Korea’s relations with the United States,\u201d\u00a0Putin\u00a0told\u00a0Kim.<\/p>\n

Following their one-on-one meeting at the start of broader talks involving officials from both sides,\u00a0Putin\u00a0and\u00a0Kim\u00a0said they had a good discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discussed the situation on the Korean Peninsula and exchanged opinions about what should be done to improve the situation and how to do it,\u201d\u00a0Putin\u00a0said.\u00a0Kim\u00a0noted that they had a \u201cvery meaningful exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason we visited Russia this time is to meet and share opinions with your excellency, President\u00a0Putin, and also share views on the Korean Peninsula and regional political situation, which has garnered the urgent attention of the world, and also hold deep discussions on strategic ways to pursue stability in the regional political situation and on the matters of jointly managing the situation,\u201d\u00a0Kim\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

He also congratulated the Russian leader on his re-election to another six-year term last year.<\/p>\n

In February, Trump-Kim\u00a0talks ended without any agreement because of disputes over U.S.-led sanctions. There have since been no publicly known high-level contacts between the U.S. and North Korea, although both sides say they are still open to a third summit.<\/p>\n

Kim\u00a0wants the U.S. to ease the sanctions to reciprocate for some partial disarmament steps he took last year. But the U.S. maintains the sanctions will stay in place until North Korea makes more significant denuclearization moves.<\/p>\n

North Korea has increasingly expressed frustration at the deadlocked negotiations. Last week, it tested a new weapon and demanded that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be removed from the nuclear talks.<\/p>\n

Kim\u00a0arrived in Vladivostok Wednesday aboard an armoured train, telling Russian state television that he was hoping that his first visit to Russia would \u201csuccessful and useful.\u201d He evoked his father’s \u201cgreat love for Russia\u201d and said that he intends to strengthen ties between the two countries. The late\u00a0Kim\u00a0Jong Il made three trips to Russia, last time in 2011.<\/p>\n

Like the U.S., Russia has strongly opposed Pyongyang’s nuclear bid.\u00a0Putin\u00a0has welcomed Trump’s meetings with\u00a0Kim, but urged the U.S. to do more to assuage Pyongyang’s security concerns.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the talks,\u00a0Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said that Russia will seek to \u201cconsolidate the positive trends\u201d stemming from Trump-Kim\u00a0meetings. He noted that the Kremlin would try to help \u201ccreate preconditions and a favourable atmosphere for reaching solid agreements on the problem of the Korean Peninsula.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dmitri Trenin, the director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, said that\u00a0Putin\u00a0will likely encourage\u00a0Kim\u00a0to continue constructive talks with the U.S., reflecting Russia’s own worry about the North nuclear and missile programs. \u201cRussia can’t be expected to side with North Korea and, let’s say, support the North Koreans all the way in the Security Council where Russia is a veto wielding member and where all sanctions imposed on North Korea require Russia’s approval,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trenin emphasized that Moscow is skeptical that the North could be persuaded to fully abandon its nuclear weapons, considering it a \u201cmission impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Korea will not give up the only guarantee of the survival of the North Korean state and its regime,\u201d Trenin said.<\/p>\n

Russia would also like to gain broader access to North Korea’s mineral resources, including rare metals. Pyongyang, for its part, covets Russia’s electricity supplies and investment to modernize its dilapidated Soviet-built industrial plants, railways and other infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Vladivostok, a city of more than half a million on the Sea of Japan, faced gridlock on its roads as traffic was blocked in the city centre due to\u00a0Kim’s visit. The authorities have temporarily closed the waters around Russky Island to all maritime traffic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia \u2014 Russian President Vladimir\u00a0Putin\u00a0and North Korean leader\u00a0Kim\u00a0Jong Un said Thursday they had good talks about their joint efforts …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":167356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-vladimir-isachenkov","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211357,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211351\/revisions\/211357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}