In Russia, Kim asks for guarantees | The North Korean leader …

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un met for the first time yesterday at a meeting on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. "Denuclearization is possible, but Pyongyang demands guarantees of security in return, what can these guarantees be, if not only legal?", Putin launched at the press conference he offered after the meeting with Kim . By contrast, South Korean President Moon Jae-in hailed the meeting and predicted a breakthrough in north-US relations.

Two months after the failure in Hanoi of the second summit between the North Korean leader and President of the United States, Donald Trump, Putin took the opportunity to defend the sovereignty of Pyongyang and encouraged Kim to normalize Northern Peninsula relations with the United States and to further develop cooperation with South Korea.

The North Korean leader arrived at the meeting venue of the Far East Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia after a half-day trip on his armored train. In total, Kim spent five hours on Russian soil: two hours of face-to-face meetings with Putin, followed by two further discussions between delegations and a dinner at which they ate typical dishes. such as borsch, crab salad and Siberian ravioli. reindeer meat. The Kremlin's head, meanwhile, received a sword as a gift. At the bilateral meeting, Putin thanked Kim for accepting the invitation to visit Russia, a country with which he shares a little more than 200 kilometers of land border. In addition, the Russian leader reminded him that it was Kim Jong-il, the father and successor of his Communist counterpart, who had requested the signing of a treaty of friendship with Russia. For his part, Kim said his trip to Vladivostok was aimed at trying "the means to a peaceful settlement" of the nuclear conflict on the Korean peninsula, which, in his view, is of primary interest in the world. . And like Putin, Kim described as very substantial the meeting with the Kremlin leader and was very happy to visit his country that he considered a big neighbor. "I hope that our negotiations will continue in the same way, in a useful and constructive way," he said.

Yesterday, the North Korean leader made it clear that he wanted progressive denuclearization. And he also asked that this be accompanied by a gradual lifting of sanctions, an offer that Washington rejected in Vietnam because it defends a "close-up" that involves the elimination of all programs North Korean armaments, in addition to the atomic program, before lifting any sanction.

At the same time, Putin urged all interested countries to take steps to build confidence and offered to "think together" about security badurances for Pyongyang.