By Amie Ferris-Rotman and Simon Denyer / The Washington Post
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin emerged from his first summit with Kim Jong Un on Thursday saying that North Korea needs international security guarantees, not just U.S. pledges, to consider giving up its nuclear arsenal.
Putin’s call for more multinational involvement contrasts sharply with President Donald Trump’s strategy of one-on-one dialogue with the North Korean leader. It also reinforced North Korea’s attempt to link security and sanctions relief as twin demands in negotiations over its nuclear program.
Meeting in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East, two months after Kim’s failed talks with Trump, Putin raised the option of reviving international talks with North Korea if Kim was not satisfied with U.S. positions on security issues.
“They (North Koreans) only need guarantees about their security. That’s it. All of us together need to think about this,” Putin told reporters after the talks with Kim.
Six-party talks with North Korea — aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program — fell apart a decade ago when Pyongyang pulled out; the negotiations included Russia, China, South Korea, the United States and Japan. In the following years, North Korea made significant advances in its nuclear and missile programs.
North Korea has pushed for a declaration to formally end the Korean War, which ended in an armistice in 1953, without a peace treaty. Kim also has denounced past U.S.-South Korea military exercises as a provocation.
Trump called off some war games and dangled the possibility of an end-of war declarationin the future, but direct U.S. pledges of support for the Kim regime’s hold on power are highly improbable, experts say.
“Nobody is in a position to give them the security guarantees they would like to have,” said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul. “They want a guarantee not only against an outside attack but also against possible internal discontent… . On balance, it’s a non-starter.”
Putin said he would press the security issue on Kim’s behalf with Beijing and Washington.
“We do share interests with the United States. We stand for full denuclearization,” Putin said after his meeting with Kim, which lasted longer than expected.
For the Kremlin, eager to play a part in high-stakes nuclear talks, the summit shows Russia’s growing political role around the globe.
It would be a mistake, Putin said, not to involve regional players such as Russia and China, and instead rely on the United States and South Korea to try to resolve the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
For Kim, meeting a world leader such as Putin presented an opportunity to save face after the breakdown in his second round of talks with Trump in Hanoi.
At a banquet following the talks, Kim raised a glass of wine to Putin, saying, “I had a frank and substantive exchange of opinions with Mr. Putin on the development of Russian-Korean relations and the provision of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.”
According to Russian state media, the one-on-one meeting between Putin and Kim lasted almost two hours, much longer than the 50 minutes allotted.
During the meeting, Kim Jong Un said that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is at a standstill and may return to its original state, blaming the United States for taking a “unilateral attitude in bad faith” in Hanoi, the North’s state news agency reported.
But while North Korea insists the United States needs to change its stance, Washington takes the opposite view, arguing the ball is in Kim Jong Un’s court to return to the negotiating table with a more realistic negotiating stance.
Putin was scheduled to leave Vladivostok soon after his talks with Kim for a summit in Beijing.
Kim will stay on in Russia to tour Vladivostok.
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