VLADIVOSTOK, September 7. /TASS/. Russia can see the Trump administration’s willingness to ease tensions surrounding North Korea, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the plenary meeting of the Eastern Economic Forum.

"We can see the current [US] administration’s willingness to ease the situation," he said.

According to the Russian president, Moscow understands that no one wants the situation to deteriorate. "I believe we need to see how the situation develops," he said. "There can be only a diplomatic solution to the issue," he said. "This is an uneasy and slow way to resolve the issue but it is the only possible one," the Russian president stressed. In Putin’s view, there is a need to launch talks and convince Seoul that it is the best way to settle the situation.

When a question was made about relations between North Korea and the United States, Putin asked the debate moderator, a US citizen, why he did not forward the question to the leaders of the US allies in the region - Japan and South Korea, who are present at the meeting. "I will ask them later," the moderator answered.