Better late than never - North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un has finally met Russian President Vladimir Putin, without whose country's patronage there would not have been this long lasting Kim dynastic rule. If North Korea is a nuclear power it is because of the then Soviet Union's assistance in early phase of its nuclear programme. Kim has already met with President Trump and President Xi. Since Russia and North Korea have common border, the North Korean leader arrived in Vladivostok this past Thursday by his special train, and was 'warmly' received by President Putin. They met for talks, dined together, addressed a joint presser and departed. There was no joint statement, nor was any agreement signed. But according to a sum-up by President Putin, "North Korea needs guarantees of its security, preservation of its sovereignty". The North Korean leader must have told his host that he was facing immense American pressure. And without naming the United States President, Putin too underscored that "we need to ... return to a state where international law, not the law of the strongest, determines the situation in the world". On that he promised to inform the United States of North Korea's apprehension. "Chairman Kim himself asked us to inform the American side of our position," he said.
Since the third Trump-Kim meeting is in the offing, the conclave in Vladivostok helps one make out as to what should be expected of the upcoming meeting. The hindsight bias suggests that their Hanoi meeting remained indecisive not because of the top leaders, it was so because of the uncompromising positions taken by their number twos. The question whether the American side recomposes its team for the next meeting, has no easy answer. But there are quite a few tangible signs that indicate that the North Korean team would not be the same. In all probability, Chairman Kim's hot-headed close aide Kim Yong Choe will no more be part of his team at the next US-North Korea denuclearization talks. He was also missing from the Putin-Kim parleys.
It will be entirely up to Washington whether or not Pyongyang sign up denuclearization deal with it. Let the western media keep saying that 'spurned by Washington, Kim seeks closer ties with Putin', while the fact is that President Putin is for complete and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The problem is with Washington. A case in point is the Trump administration's withdrawal from nuclear deal with Iran, a move all the more pronounced now as it has re-imposed all Iran sanctions. If it is how the United States conducts its regional policies - as done by ramping up economic pressure on Iran - what assurance is then that it would treat North Korea differently. There is an unmistakable parallelism between the United States' strategic interests in the Gulf and its stakes in the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang is not expected to be unmindful of this kind of arm-twisting. The fact on the ground is that the North Korean leadership is ready to shut down its nuclear shop and wants to be part of the global mainstream. But as it engages with the United States it wants to move on step-by-step. Chairman Kim was in Russia to seek support not to counterbalance the American pressure but also to seek international guarantees that its nuclear surrender would be compensated by lifting of sanctions and a tangible drawdown of foreign troops from the peninsula. There are plenty of indications suggesting that the two Koreas want to co-exist as friends and brothers. Not only will President Trump be securing peace all across the 38th Parallel, he will also be helping denuclearization all across the globe by holding constructive and productive talks with the North Korean leadership.