Putin: we can and should achieve positive results in solving Korean Peninsula problem
VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 7 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin believes it is possible to settle the Korean Peninsula situation.
"We should be working together. We can and should achieve positive results," Putin said in his comments on the situation in the Korean Peninsula at the Eastern Economic Forum on Thursday.
The parties to the 2005 negotiations on the Korean nuclear problem were close to a solution, Putin said.
"We practically made a deal in 2005. It was agreed that North Korea would curtail its missile and nuclear program, and the other participants in the process pledged to help the process along, called for a normal and neighborly relationship between the North and the South, and declared the possibility of trilateral projects between Russia and North and South Koreas," he said.
"Unfortunately, someone demanded that North Korea do something it did not commit to, in my opinion, and the situation gradually degraded to the level we see today," Putin said.