Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was “pleased” with the outcome of his summit meeting Thursday in the Russian city of Vladivostok with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying he would discuss the results with China and the United States.
“We are all pleased with the outcome of the talks – both I and my colleagues,” the Russian leader said. “Chairman Kim Jong Un is a fairly open person, leading a free discussion on all issues that were on the agenda.”
Asked if Kim would be willing to continue his contact with the US, Putin said the leader in Pyongyang would be guided by his “national interests,” but added that “we can’t resolve anything without talks” when it came to the crisis on the Korean peninsula. Putin, who travels next to Beijing, said he would discuss the summit with his Chinese counterparts.
“Of course, I will speak tomorrow in Beijing with the leadership of the People’s Republic of China, but we will also openly and frankly discuss today’s meeting with the American leadership,” he said. “There are no secrets here, Russia’s position is always open, there are no conspiracies.” Putin said Kim himself requested that his position be relayed to the US side.
“Moreover, Kim Jong Un himself asked us to inform the American side about his position, about the issues that arose for him in connection with the processes that are taking place on and around the Korean Peninsula,” the Russian president said.
It just wouldn’t be a Kim Jong Un summit without a coin to commemorate the occasion.
Photographers at the banquet spotted cases with the medals in laid out at each table place.
Perhaps the most well-known coin was the one commemorating the Trump and Kim Singapore summit. It was sold by the White House Gift Shop ahead of the meeting and was a resounding success, attracting over 1,000 orders in the first day.
That coin, in silver, white, red and blue, sparked controversy for referring to Kim as North Korea’s “Supreme Leader,” a title not usually used by the US.
In Hanoi, people lined up outside the Vietnam Stamps Company from 6 a.m. – three-and-a-half hours before the shop opened – to get their hands on one of 500 limited-edition coins commemorating the second summit between Trump and Kim
Each of the coins cost 500,000 Vietnamese dong (about $22) and sold out in three hours. On the front, the coin features the flags of the US and North Korea, embossed in silver, along with a dove and the slogan “World Peace.”
Putin is treating Kim to a host of classic Russian dishes for dinner, according to a copy of the menu posted by the Russian state news agency TASS.
The two will be eating:
Talks between North Korean and Russian officials have ended after about three and a half hours, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
The two leaders will now attend a formal reception, followed by dinner.
Some analysts believe that Putin’s meeting with Kim is something of a coup, following the collapse of the Hanoi summit and the current tenuous status of North Korea-US talks.
“Putin has been trying to get the North Korean leader to Russia for a long time,” said Andrey Kortunov of the Russian International Affairs Council.
But Robert Kelly, a professor of international relations at South Korea’s Pusan National University, thinks Kim is “shopping around for a deal – playing the various actors off each other, looking for wins and bargains along the way.”
“That we all seem to think it’s all about Trump is our own American blindness. Russia can’t give Kim much – beyond a safe place to park illicit income. The trip is more about stirring other interlocutors into renewed talks/concessions,” Kelly said.
Kim Jong Un called his visit to Russia “a great joy” during the two leaders’ summit Thursday, as the two sides’ delegations prepared to meet behind closed doors.
He continued:
Philip Yun, the executive director of the anti-nuclear weapons NGO Ploughshares Fund, said he was surprised that denuclearization was high on the agenda for the Putin-Kim summit because Russia has little leverage in dealing with North Korea.
He described the summit as “long on symbolism.”
“Kim Jong Un is trying to figure out what his options are and trying to increase his leverage with the United States,” Yun told CNN.
Yun said the summit offers Putin an opportunity to insert Russia into the conversation when it comes to resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis, as Moscow risked being left on the sidelines after last year’s flurry of diplomatic activity between North Korea, South Korea, the United States and China.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had “thorough one-on-one talks” to kick off their summit in Vladivostok.
Speaking before the North Korean and Russian delegations, Putin said the two leaders spoke about “about the history of relations between our countries, about today and perspectives of development of our bilateral relations.
Putin said he believed Kim’s visit would help “our bilateral relations and will help us to understand the ways we can help to settle the situation on the Korean peninsula, what can be done together, what Russia can do to support the positive processes that are taking their place now.”
Here’s what else Putin said:
Speaking to the media after meeting Vladimir Putin for the first time, Kim Jong Un said he expects to have a “beneficial meeting” with the Russian President.
Kim also thanked Putin for hosting him during a “very busy time.” Addressing the Russian leader, he continued:
The North Korean leader appeared to be breathing heavily while Putin spoke.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met for the first time shortly after 2 p.m. in Vladivostok, Russia. Putin greeted Kim after he exited a Mercedes limousine. The two shook hands and posed for pictures as they appeared to exchange a few words.
They then entered a building at Russia’s Far Eastern Federal University, where the summit will take place.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have arrived at Far Eastern Federal University ahead of his meeting with Kim Jong Un there.
Vladimir Putin will be the sixth world leader to meet Kim Jong Un since he took control of North Korea in 2011. All of these meetings have happened since 2018, when Kim’s regime emerged from the shadows and began a diplomatic charm offensive.
So far, Kim has met Chinese President Xi Jinping, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, US President Donald Trump and Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong.
Kim has met Xi on four trips to China – three to Beijing and one to Dalian. Kim’s March 2018 trip to the Chinese capital was his first excursion trip outside North Korea since ascending to power.
He then visited Dalian in May and was back in Beijing in June shortly after his summit in Singapore with Trump. Kim also visited Beijing in January 2019.
South Korea’s Moon has met Kim three times, all in 2018 – twice at the demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas and once in Pyongyang.
Kim has held two summits with Trump, one in Singapore in June 2018 and another in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi in February 2019.
On both those visits he also met the leaders of the host countries.
North Korea has ousted Kim Yong Chol as the head of relations with South Korea, said a South Korean government official on Thursday.
South Korean Lawmaker Lee Hye-hoon, the chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, told local media that Kim had been removed from his position running the government’s United Front Department sometime in mid-April.
The United Front Department manages with all things South Korea, including Pyongyang’s relationship with Seoul and using propaganda to foment pro-North Korean views in the South.
Kim has also served as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s counterpart in nuclear negotiations with the United States and organizing the two summits between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.
It’s unclear if Kim Yong Chol’s role in talks with Washington has changed, as he still holds other important titles inside North Korea.
After entering Russia, it took Kim Jong Un about nine hours to get to the eastern port city of Vladivostok by train, according to Russian state-run news agency TASS.
Kim’s train likely passed through a single-track railway along the borders of the “Land of the Leopard” National Park to a station in the city of Ussuriysk, TASS reported. That 260 kilometer-journey (162 miles) was believed to last about seven hours.
From Ussuriysk, the train then linked to the Trans-Siberian Railway leading to Vladivostok. That portion of the journey is about 70 kilometers (43 miles) and expected to take two hours, according to TASS.
Upon crossing into Russia by train on Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he was “happy to be on Russian soil,” according to the official website of the Russian region of Primorsky, where the meeting is taking place.
“I came to Russia with the warm feeling of our people,” Kim told state media Russia 24 upon arrival. He continued:
Analysts have speculated that Kim’s meeting with Putin could be a way for the young North Korean leader to assess his diplomatic options outside talks with the United States.
Pyongyang also may be seeking to lessen its economic reliance on Beijing, North Korea’s only significant trading partner. Former North Korean leader Kim Il Sung was notorious for playing China and the Soviet Union off of each other in order to maximize foreign investment.
North Korea may also hope for Russian support in pressuring Washington over sanctions relief, which continues to be a major sticking issue in denuclearization talks. The Trump administration has said sanctions will only be lifted after North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons program.
Russia, however, has previously stated it believes sanctions should be lifted in phases.
Kim Jong Un was greeted with plenty of pomp upon arriving in Russia yesterday, but the Kremlin has set limited expectations for the summit. A key aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin said the two leaders do not plan to sign any agreements or come out with a joint statement.
The meeting does, however, offer Russia an opportunity to assert itself, once again, on the international stage.
Putin may have been sidelined by the high-profile Trump-Kim summits that have dominated headlines for months. Now Russia’s strongman president is back at the center of attention.
