North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Thursday extended an invitation to his Russian counterpart to visit North Korea at ‘a convenient time’ and the invitation was ‘readily accepted’, state media reported.
The invitation comes shortly after the North Korean leader held talks with Putin in the port city of Vladivostok.
“The dignified supreme leader ‘s comrade once again expressed his deep appreciation for the friendship and warm hospitality of friends of friendly Russia. He promised a new reunion with Mr. Putin in North Korea,” Korean Central News Agency said in a report.
The two leaders met for their maiden summit in Vladivostok, amid a deadlock between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea’s nuclear programme.
The Russian leader greeted Kim as the latter arrived at the federal university here for the talks.
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At the meeting, Putin said, “Russia supports the efforts of the leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the realisation of seasonal dialogue and improvement of North-South relations.”
“President Putin said that Russia is willing to cooperate with Russia in resolving tensions in the Korean Peninsula and strengthening security throughout the Northeast Asian region. He said that under the active participation of the international community and all interested countries, He was convinced that he would surely achieve the goal of ensuring peace and stability and achieving prosperity,” KCNA reported.
“President Putin and I have talked on a meaningful dialogue on the issues of peace and security in the Korean peninsula and the region, and international issues that are of common concern. It was emphasised that it is a solid government and a strategic policy of the government of the Republic to constantly strengthen and develop in line with the demands of the century,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
After the three-hour long summit, Putin called Kim a “very open person”, saying that they had detailed, open discussion of sanctions, the US and denuclearisation, Sputnik reported.
The summit comes after the failed summit between Kim and United States President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February went off the table as the two sides were unable to reach an agreement over the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and Washington’s sanctions relief.
In Thursday’s summit, Kim blamed Washington’s “unilateral” attitude for the breakdown of his February meeting with Trump and the current stalemate in denuclearization negotiations, according to the KCNA.
“The situation on the Korean peninsula and the region is now at a standstill and has reached a critical point where it may return to its original state as the U.S. took a unilateral attitude in bad faith at the recent second Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)-U.S. summit talks,” Kim was quoted as saying.
“And (he) added that peace and security on the Korean peninsula will entirely depend on the U.S. future attitude, and the DPRK will gird itself for every possible situation,” KCNA said.
This was the first meeting between Kim and Putin in eight years. Former leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il, father of Kim Jong-un, had met then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2011.
(With ANI inputs)