WEB DESK

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Russia’s Pacific port city of Vladivostok for a summit with President Vladimir Putin. Kim arrived on his private train. It will be his first talks with the Russian president. The Kremlin says they will meet near the Pacific coast city of Vladivostok tomorrow and will talk about the Korean peninsula’s nuclear problem.

Kim is believed to be seeking support after failing to reach an agreement with US President Trump on N Korea’s nuclear weapons programme at Hanoi earlier this year. Mr Putin’s foreign-policy aide, Yuri Ushakov has said the situation on the Korean peninsula had stabilised somewhat in recent months and Russia intends to help in any way possible to cement that positive trend. Russia has previously been involved in talks to end North Korea’s nuclear programme.

Earlier this month North Korea demanded that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be removed from nuclear talks after testing a new tactical guided weapon thought to be a short-range missile. It blamed Pompeo for the collapse of the Hanoi summit in February and asked for someone more careful to
replace him.