N. Korea willing to scrap missile program, says Putin
BEIJING, July 20 Kyodo - Russian President Vladimir Putin met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang on Wednesday and later told reporters that Kim indicated North Korea may scrap its missile program if it can get other countries' rocket technology.
The two leaders also issued a joint declaration after the meeting in which they pledged to forge closer bilateral ties and said Russia would help foster peace in the Korean peninsula, according to Russian media reporting from the North Korean capital.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Putin said Kim made the remarks about North Korean missile program during the summit but conceded there is ambiguity about the implications of what Kim said.
''We need to do a further review and analysis,'' Putin said, according a Russian TV report.
Kim reportedly assured Putin during the two-hour meeting that North Korea's missile program was ''entirely peaceful.''
Putin said Kim told him that North Korea is ''willing to use exclusively the rocket technology of other countries'' if it can get hold of foreign ''rocket boosters for peaceful space research.''
Putin said Russia is willing to provide rocket technology to North Korea and urged the United States and other countries to follow suit if they want to minimize a missile ''threat'' from North Korea.
''One can minimize the (North Korean) threat by supplying the DPRK (North Korea) with rocket boosters,'' Putin was quoted as saying.
Putin said he invited Kim to visit Moscow at ''any convenient time'' and called the bilateral treaty on friendship and cooperation signed in February a ''positive step.''
The Russian leader pledged to do his utmost to improve the situation on the Korean Peninsula and urged the United States, Japan and China to do their part.
Putin is Russia's first leader to visit North Korea. A summit meeting between the two countries was last held in October 1986, when the late Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il's father, visited the Soviet Union.
Kim welcomed the Russian president at Pyongyang airport and North Koreans extended a warm welcome to Putin on the streets.
Putin traveled from Beijing to Pyongyang,
the second destination in his three-nation
tour of East Asia. He leaves Pyongyang on
Thursday will head to Japan for the Group
of Eight summit meeting after a brief stopover
far east Russia.
==Kyodo
 |
next | back |