Putin, Moon see Trump as willing to defuse North Korea crisis

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia – Russian President Vladimir Putin and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in said Thursday they saw the Trump administration as willing to solve the North Korean crisis through diplomacy.

“We see the administration’s desire to defuse this situation,” Putin said alongside Moon and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a forum in Vladivostok.

Putin said that North Korea won’t agree to end its nuclear program in return for easing sanctions.

“It’s impossible to scare them,” Putin said of North Korea. “They think that means the next step for them is an invitation to the cemetery.”

Moon said his nation was increasing pressure on Pyongyang in the hope of achieving a diplomatic and peaceful resolution to the crisis.

“I can say for sure that there will be no war on the Korean peninsula again,” Moon said. He said he saw no difference with the U.S. on the principle that the North Korean nuclear issue should be resolved through talks.

Abe took a harder line, saying that North Korea must be made to give up its entire nuclear weapons and missile program. He added that North Korea was a grave and immediate threat.

The leaders’ comments came hours after South Korea bolstered its defenses against North Korean rockets, with the arrival of four launchers for a U.S. missile shield at a military base in South Korea.

Seoul also warned that North Korea may launch a new missile as soon as this weekend.

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said at a conference in Seoul on Thursday that North Korea may fire its next missile on Saturday – the anniversary of its founding – adding there isn’t much time until the regime becomes a fully nuclear-armed state. The yen strengthened on Lee’s remarks.

South Korea had said already that Pyongyang may be gearing up for another rocket test in the aftermath of its nuclear detonation on Sunday, as it seeks to improve the capacity of its intercontinental ballistic missile program.

South Korea has said the launchers for the U.S. missile defense system known as Thaad would be installed in the face of the growing threat from Pyongyang. The move has already drawn a rebuke from China, which says Thaad could upset the regional security balance and be used against its own missile systems.

The deployment of Thaad “does not help addressing the security concerns of relevant countries,” Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said at a briefing in Beijing on Wednesday. “It will only severely undermine the strategic balance in the region, jeopardize strategic and security interests of the regional countries, including China, aggravate the tension and confrontation, and further complicate the Peninsular issue.”

On coming to power in May, Moon opposed the early installation of the shield. But North Korea’s ICBM launches in July prompted him to order his government to discuss deployment of the four remaining launchers at the Seongju military base, about 220 kilometers (136 miles) southeast of Seoul.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo that his country was preparing for various scenarios, including North Korea’s development of electromagnetic pulse attack capability.

The initial decision by Moon’s predecessor Park Geun-hye to install Thaad led China to slap painful economic penalties on South Korea. It ordered travel agencies to stop selling tour packages to South Korea and took steps against Lotte Group, one of South Korea’s largest family-run conglomerates, which offered up the land that hosts Thaad’s missile battery.

There were 2.3 million fewer Chinese tourists in the five months through July from the same period last year.

The system, made by Lockheed Martin Corp., is designed to destroy short-and-medium-range ballistic missiles at high altitudes in their “terminal” phase, as they descend. It’s different from conventional defense missiles, which seek to get close to a target and self-detonate to damage or deflect the threat.

The U.S. is circulating a draft resolution at the United Nations that would bar crude oil shipments to North Korea, ban the nation’s exports of textiles and prohibit employment of its guest workers by other countries, according to a diplomat at the world body.

The proposal, which also calls for freezing the assets of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has been circulated to the 15 members of the Security Council, according to the diplomat, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. The U.S. has said it wants the council to take up tougher sanctions at a meeting Sept. 11.

The bid for the toughest penalties yet against North Korea comes despite renewed warnings against such moves by the leaders of China and Russia, which have veto power in the Security Council. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke for 45 minutes Wednesday.

“We will not be putting up with what’s happening in North Korea,” Trump told reporters Wednesday after the conversation. The two leaders had a “very, very frank and very strong call,” he added. Asked about possible U.S. military action, the president said “That’s not our first choice, but we’ll see what happens.”