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Russia regrets US-North Korea summit was cancelled — Putin

STRELNA, May 24./TASS/. Russia regrets that a summit of the US and North Korea was cancelled, as it expected this move to relax tensions on the Korean peninsula, President Vladimir Putin said after talks with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.

"We, Russia, have taken this news with regret, as we all expected a major step will be made towards easing tensions on the Korean peninsula, and that this will launch the process of denuclearization of the whole Korean peninsula," Putin said.

He stressed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did all he had promised, destroying the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, after which the US cancelled the talks.

Russia expects that a summit of the US and North Korea will take place eventually, and Russia will continue working to bring the two countries’ positions closer, Putin said.

"We hope that a dialogue will be restarted, will continue, and a meeting will take place. Without this meeting we can hardly expect sizable progress in the settlement of an extremely important issue, not just a regional one, but I think a global issue. We will be working all together to bring closer the positions of the US and North Korea," Putin said.