Russia and North Korea intend to expand cooperation in transport, agriculture and other sectors, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the 60 Minutes program following the talks with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, TASS reports.
"We have a lot of interesting projects <…> including in transportation, logistics, meaning railways, and highways, meaning the resumption of the seaport’s work where a logistics triangle may be created with a railway, a port and a highway to China. The volume of transportation may be increased multi-fold here," he said.
Putin added that he also discussed agriculture development with Kim Jong Un, noting that Moscow "has something to offer" in this regard. "We also provide humanitarian assistance to the country, but apart from humanitarian assistance there is a possibility to simply work on equal terms," the Russian president stressed.
Russia will continue to fulfill all its UN commitments while developing relations with next door neighbor North Korea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with the "60 Minutes" program on the Rossiya-1 channel.
He was commenting on the possibility of Moscow lifting sanctions against Pyongyang.
"Russia will continue to remain a responsible member of the United Nations, a permanent member of the [UN] Security Council and also the closest neighbor of the DPRK. And it will develop relations in all areas," he noted.
North Korea is subject to one of the most severe sanctions regimes to date. Resolution 2397 adopted by the UN Security Council provides for restrictions on the supply of oil and its products to the country. The sanctions were imposed due to Pyongyang's continuing development of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not discuss the risks of a nuclear war during their talks, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"No, it was not discussed at all," the spokesman told the Rossiya-1 TV channel.
Earlier, addressing the participants of the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security, North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun-nam said that the US is bringing the situation in the Northeast Asian region "to the limit of the outbreak of nuclear war."
When asked to comment on foreign media publications that allegedly discussed the possibility of deploying North Korean servicemen on the Russia-Ukraine border, Peskov said: "No, they did not touch [this issue] in any way. They talked about the development of bilateral relations."
