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Kremlin to welcome US-North Korean summit if it eases tensions

The second US-North Korean summit will take place on February 27-28

© AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe

MOSCOW, February 26. /TASS/. The Kremlin will hail the results of the forthcoming second US-North Korean summit on February 27-28, if they allow for making progress towards resolving the Korean Peninsula’s nuclear problem and easing tensions in the region, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media.

"If this meeting heralds progress towards resolving the North Korean nuclear problem, creating a safer and more stable situation on the Korean Peninsula and easing tensions there, this can be only welcomed," Peskov said when asked about the Kremlin’s attitude to the forthcoming summit meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi.

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Peskov said that after last year’s Trump-Kim meeting everybody pointed to a "certain easing of tensions," but there exists "systemic nuancing in approaches" made by different countries to the way of resolving the Korean nuclear problem. Moscow maintains that any steps Pyongyang might take to meet the expectations of the international community "must evoke some reciprocal movement."

"Only in this way, by means of small steps towards each other it would be possible to achieve positive results," Peskov explained adding that "indiscriminate pressures on Pyongyang would hardly be productive."

"There are certain discrepancies in the nuances (approaches made by different countries - TASS), but in general everybody agrees that it is important to achieve a safer and more predictable situation on the Korean Peninsula matching the ideals of non-proliferation," Peskov said. "For us this question is even more crucial than for the United States, because the territories in focus adjoin our own."

In the meantime, the last preparations are being made in Hanoi for the second meeting of Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. The first-ever meeting between the two countries’ leaders was held in Singapore on June 12, 2018. Trump and Kim put their signatures to a joint document by which Pyongyang assumed denuclearization commitments in exchange for Washington’s security guarantees. The second US-North Korean summit is expected to produce more specific agreements on the steps the two countries will take to settle the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

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