so it's talks between Pyongyang and Washington pretty much stalled in going
nowhere North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's first summer with Russian President
Vladimir Putin expected to take place in less than six hours from now we'll give
the two longtime allies an opportunity to show a united front at a critical
moment in negotiations over North Korea's nuclear disarmament but the
Kremlin says don't expect any joint signings or joint statements or really
anything but heavy choreography early for the record that this is the first
time the leaders from North Korea and Russia have met since 2011 joining me
live in the studio to put things into perspective is dr. Scott Snyder senior
fellow and director of US Korea policy at Council on Foreign Relations
Scott it's great to have you here in our sole studio glad to be here now on the
surface this looks pretty basic if he can't get what he wants from Donald
Trump he's gonna try stuck with vladimir putin kim jong-in that is the only
problem with the theory is can russia give him what the US cannot I mean I
guess they're apples and oranges but there are mutual benefits there right
well I think so I mean essentially what Kim jong-un wants to do is to restore
his stature as an effective leader in North Korea following a failure in Han
way and to show that he has alternatives to talking to the United States and so
for and for President Putin you know this gets him kind of back in the game
on the Korean Peninsula after a long absence then it gives him some
credibility and something to bring to other meetings with leaders like Xi
Jinping later well perhaps that's that is why because the king said that he
hoped he and the Russian president could talk about you know discuss ways to
bring peace on the Korean Peninsula and while the Kremlin did say that did
concur the Kremlin said that the six-party talks which of course has been
stalled for pretty much a very very long time is the actually the only way the
multilateral negotiations are the only efficient way of addressing the
denuclearization so we're gonna first take a listen to the Kremlin
spokesperson
there are no other efficient international mechanisms at the moment
that's why it's hardly possible to abstract away from this mechanism but on
the other hand you know that settlement efforts are being made by other
countries as well all efforts deserve support if they truly pursue the goal of
denuclearizing society so they said that the six-party talks are the only way to
are the only way that will actually resolve this issue of denuclearizing the
Korean Peninsula and bring peace in this region now are we seeing Russia trying
to flex its diplomatic progress if you will in this region and the
international society well the idea of getting back to the six-party talks gets
the Russians back into the game but I think that it is still the case that the
u.s. is focused bilaterally with Kim jong-un and we are gonna be waiting the
u.s. is going to be waiting to see whether Kim jong-un is ready to
re-engage bilaterally with the u.s. to discuss some of the outstanding issues
post Hanoi what's the stance the United States
watching this rather audacious if you will I mean relative to his father his
predecessor Kim Jong Il the sedation's move by North Korean leader Kim jong-un
meeting all these leaders what's the u.s. stands watching this I think the
United States government has been very active and trying to engage with Moscow
essentially in order to try to contain risks of Russia being a spoiler and also
to try to contain any negative downside from a Kim jong-un Putin summit what do
you expect out of this Kim footin summit obviously we know that Kim is going
there with his foreign affairs team chess on he and we jung-ho who will be
talking about denuclearization but he's also going there with officials in
charge of budgetary affairs and also weapons Affairs and we also know that
there are North Korean laborers there is in Russia we also know that there will
be ikan all cooperation or Economic Affairs talked
between the two leaders what do you expect well aside from being back in the
game the Russian approach to North Korea is very mercantilist ik and you just
named many of the areas where there might be a convergence of interests
between Kim jong-un and Putin related to sanctions weakening in order to be able
to pursue mercantilist ik interests and also sustaining activities like labors
abroad that generate cash flows for the North Korean regime no um the immediate
to mid-term forecast what is your forecast on things I mean there are so
many parties involved here right after this summit Putin goes to meet Xi
Jinping of China there's word that China Xi Jinping will be visiting North Korea
very soon South Korean president Mooji is waiting for a summit with North
Korean leader Kim jong-un president Donald Trump is has said he has a door
open for talks with North Korea what's your outlook on things on this very
complicated global calculus well I think the critical signals were really sensed
by Kim jong-un Supreme People's Assembly speech from about 10 days ago in which
he tries to restore the perception that North Korea is engaging from a position
of strength he did a little bit of blame-shifting putting all of the fault
for failure of Hanoi on the US and we've seen North Korean officials call out
specific US negotiators and then basically try to research and so the
really interesting question is whether either via South Korea or directly with
the u.s. we can see a reengagement hopefully at a working level where both
sides can reassess and determine whether there is another way forward and then of
course the other thing that Kim did is to try to impose a deadline on the u.s.
to make it look like he like the u.s. had to come to him rather than him going
to the US well will this be a repeat of history or will this open up a new
chapter we'll have to wait and see thank you so much as always first nighter and
we hope to talk to you again thank you