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Trump stresses importance of Russia’s steps to denuclearize North Korea - White House

According to a reputed US foreign policy analyst, founder and head of Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer, Pyongyang seeks to show the US that it has a good dialogue with Moscow

US President Donald Trump EPA-EFE/SHAWN THEW

US President Donald Trump

© EPA-EFE/SHAWN THEW

WASHINGTON, May 4. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump spoke about the importance of Russia’s steps aimed at the Korean Peninsula’s denuclearization during a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters.

"They spoke about North Korea for a good bit of time on the call, and reiterated both the commitment and the need for denuclearization, and the president said several times on this front, as well, the need and importance of Russia stepping up and continuing to help and put pressure on North Korea to denuclearize," Sanders said.

According to a reputed US foreign policy analyst, founder and head of an international research and consulting company, Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer, Pyongyang seeks to show the US that it has a good dialogue with Moscow in order to encourage Washington to hold a new summit between the US and North Korean leaders.

Negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un were held on April 25 on Russky Island in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok. The leaders thoroughly discussed bilateral relations and their prospects and dwelled on issues linked to the situation on the Korean Peninsula, in particular the denuclearization problem. The Vladivostok summit became the first face-to-face meeting between Putin and Kim Jong-un.

After the summit, Putin called Kim an interesting and substantive interlocutor, while the North Korean leader described the exchange of views as "very substantive."

The latest summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un took place in Hanoi on February 27-28. The leaders discussed the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the normalization of relations between Washington and Pyongyang. The sides failed to come to an agreement during the summit and did not adopt a joint statement, promising to continue the talks at a later time. The first Trump-Kim summit took place on June 12, 2018 in Singapore.

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