Putin to act as Kim’s go-between with US
Russian president says North Korea needs more security guarantees after first meeting with leader
VLADIMIR PUTIN said Kim Jong-un has asked him to serve as an intermediary with the US after the North Korean leader’s nuclear disarmament talks with Donald Trump collapsed.
The Russian and North Korean leaders met for the first time in Vladivostok yesterday, allowing Moscow to reinsert itself into the dialogue around denuclearisation.
Mr Putin will next head to China, where he will discuss the issue with Xi Jinping, its president. “Chairman Kim asked us to inform the American side of his position on questions that have arisen amid the processes taking place on the Korean peninsula,” said Mr Putin. “So there are no secrets here. We will discuss this with our American and Chinese friends.”
Last week, Pyongyang demanded Mr Trump replace the “reckless” Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, as his lead negotiator and claimed it had tested a new “tactical guided weapon with a powerful warhead”.
“It is my and my government’s firm strategic position that the strategic and traditional friendly relations between North Korea and Russia be strengthened,” Kim said at the talks. He did not join the press conference afterwards.
Russia was in favour of Pyongyang’s “full denuclearisation,” Mr Putin said, and he suggested that Washington’s overreaching demands and supposedly threatening posture hindered this. In a clear shot at the US, he said he and Kim had discussed the need to “return to a situation when international law, not the law of the fist, decides the order of things in the world”.
“North Korea needs a guarantee of its security, of the preservation of its sovereignty,” he said. “What guarantees could there be besides those made under international law?” He also said he welcomed Kim’s efforts to “normalise North Korean-us relations”.
Russia and China drafted a road map in 2017 calling for a step-by-step approach to rolling back North Korea’s nuclear programme, while Mr Trump has sought a sweeping disarmament in exchange for sanctions relief.
A Vietnam summit in February broke down when Mr Trump reportedly rejected Kim’s offer of partial disarmament in exchange for reduced sanctions. Yesterday’s talks were a chance for Kim to reduce Washington’s leverage in negotiations by showing he has other international partners, while Mr Putin can position Russia as a major player in the Asian region.
North Korean denuclearisation is one of the few areas were the US has continued dialogue with Russia, sending an envoy to Moscow to discuss the issue earlier this month.
While Mr Putin said the two sides discussed sanctions during more than two-and-a-half hours of talks, he did not provide further details.
It was thought Kim could seek humanitarian food aid and sanctions relief from Russia, which voted for the punitive measures in the United Nations but has been accused of helping Pyongyang dodge restrictions on fuel imports.
‘[We need a] return to a situation when international law, not the law of the fist, decides the order of things in the world’