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Putin Offers to Become Trump-North Korea Middleman

Russian president has offered to brief Trump on his summit with Kim Jong Un.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to share the details of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with the United States, the Associated Press reports. Such high-level diplomacy would essentially set up Putin as the powerful middleman to kickstart stalled negotiations between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim on Pyongyang’s path to denuclearization. Kim and Putin met Thursday in Vladivostok, about 75 miles from the North Korean border. There, Kim accused the U.S. of harboring a “unilateral attitude in bad faith.” On the heels of the Thursday summit, Putin said Kim is “willing to give up nuclear weapons, but only if he gets ironclad security guarantees.” Korean news agency KCNA reported Friday morning that Kim and Putin held “in-depth discussions to promote strategic communication and tactical collaboration.”

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For Putin and Kim Jong Un, the Meeting Was the Message

Donald Kirk