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RUSSIA-NKOREA-SUMMIT
N.Korea’s Kim, Putin to hold first talks in Russia’s Far East
MOSCOW, April 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin will meet
in Russia’s Far East on Thursday, the Kremlin said, as the North Korean
leader looks to rebuild ties with an old ally amid a standoff with the United
States.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said the meeting — the first
between the two men — would take place in the Pacific coast city of
Vladivostok, before Putin heads to Beijing for another summit.
“The focus will be on a political and diplomatic solution to the nuclear
problem on the Korean Peninsula,” Ushakov told a briefing on Tuesday.
“Russia intends to help consolidate positive trends in every way,” he said.
Kim left for Russia on Wednesday on his private armoured train, North
Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency reported.
Russian news agency Interfax reported that he was expected to cross into
Russia at the border town of Khasan, and the Ria Novosti agency quoted
Russian rail service sources saying the train was expected to arrive at
Vladivostok station at 6:00 pm local time (0800 GMT) on Wednesday.
Expectations for a summit had been building since the Kremlin announced
last week the two men would meet by the end of April.
Russian and North Korean flags were already flying on lamp posts Tuesday on
Vladivostok’s Russky island, where the summit is expected to take place at a
university campus.
Ushakov said the talks would begin one-on-one and then move into an
“expanded format”, without providing further details.
He said no joint statement or signing of agreements was planned.
The talks follow repeated invitations from Putin since Kim last year
embarked on a series of diplomatic overtures.
Since March 2018 the formerly reclusive North Korean leader has held four
meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, three with the South’s Moon Jae-
in, two with US President Donald Trump and one with Vietnam’s president.
– Cold War ties –
Analysts say he is now looking for wider international support in his
standoff with Washington.
At Kim’s last summit with Trump in Hanoi in February, Pyongyang demanded
immediate relief from sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons and
ballistic missile programmes.
But the talks broke down over what North Korea was prepared to give up in
return.
Last week Pyongyang launched a blistering attack on US Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo, demanding he be removed from the negotiations just hours after
announcing it had carried out a new weapons test.
Moscow has called for the sanctions to be eased, while the US has accused
it of trying to help Pyongyang evade some of the measures — accusations
Russia denies.
The Vladivostok meeting appears to have been discussed with Washington.
Ushakov met last week in Moscow with Fiona Hill, a foreign policy adviser
to Trump, for talks on North Korea. The US special envoy for North Korea
Stephen Biegun was also in Moscow at the time for meetings with Russian
officials.
North Korea’s defence minister No Kwang Chol was in Moscow Tuesday for an
international security conference.
The summit will be the first between the two neighbours since Kim’s father
Kim Jong Il met Dmitry Medvedev in Russia eight years ago. Putin previously
met Kim Jong Il in Vladivostok in 2002.
Ties between Pyongyang and Moscow, once its most important ally, go back
decades.
The Soviet Union installed Kim’s grandfather Kim Il Sung as North Korea’s
leader and was a crucial backer and main aid provider to Pyongyang during the
Cold War.
The USSR started to reduce funding to the North as it began to seek
reconciliation with Seoul in the 1980s, and Pyongyang was hit hard by the
demise of the Soviet Union.
China has since stepped in to become the isolated North’s most important
ally, its largest trading partner and crucial fuel supplier.
Analysts say that by reaching out to Russia Kim could be looking to balance
Beijing’s influence, while Putin is keen to project Russian influence in
another global flashpoint.
“It’s part of the North’s Juche — self-reliance — ideology not to rely on
a single ally,” said Jeong Young-tae, an analyst at the Institute of North
Korean Studies in Seoul.
“Pyongyang has a group of experts on diplomacy who have been in their post
for decades. They’ll know how to play the game if it ever becomes necessary
for Pyongyang to play off its allies against each other.”
BSS/AFP/GMR/0826 hrs