Playing Russia card

Kim Jong-un should not try to weaken only sanctions

North Korean leader Kim Jongun is expected to visit Russia in late April to have a summit with President Vladimir Putin as reported by the Russian news agency TASS on Thursday. Moscow and Pyongyang has yet to reveal when and where the summit will be held possibly for security reasons.

TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Kim and Putin would discuss the issue of the North's denuclearization and regional cooperation. The expected summit, if realized, will be the first meeting between the two leaders. It will also be the first of its kind since 2011 when Kim's father and predecessor, Kim Jongil, met with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Sources speculate Kim and Putin will meet in Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok as early as this week when the Russian president travels to the city on his way to China for an international forum on China's Belt and Road Initiative. Their first encounter will draw keen attention as it comes after the second U.S.-North Korea summit fell through in Hanoi, February.

The Kim-Putin summit is not without its positives. However, the meeting raises concerns that Kim could try to play a Russia card to secure diplomatic leverage to put forward his demands for sanctions relief even before the North completes its nuclear disarmament.

In fact, Moscow has backed the North's phased and simultaneous method of denuclearization under which Pyongyang can get rewards, including sanctions relief, for every step it takes for scrapping its nuclear arsenal. This is a far cry from a firm U.S. stance that sanctions remain in place until the North achieves complete and verifiable denuclearization.

Kim is undoubtedly seeking to weaken the united international front against the North by beefing up relations with Russia. He had already used a China card before and after holding the historic summit with Trump in Singapore last June.

Kim apparently intends to turn the tide in his favor by cementing solidarity with the two traditional socialist allies. Particularly, the North has hinted at finding a new way in case the nuclear negotiations with the U.S. go nowhere eventually. This new way might be to neutralize the U.N. sanctions through stepping up collaboration with Russia without denuclearizing.

Russia provides the North with about 4,000 tons of refined oil each month. It supplied 50,000 tons of flour to the North early this year. Kim is likely to ask Putin to provide more energy and more food aid to his country. In addition, he may ask Moscow to extend the stay of about 10,000 North Korean laborers in Russia, who are being forced to return home under a U.N. Security Council resolution.

The Trump administration sent Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, to Moscow to persuade Russia to stand fast in the sanctions regime. We urge President Putin neither to accommodate Kim's irrational demands nor to send a wrong signal to Pyongyang whatsoever.

For his part, Kim should not backpedal on his commitment to complete denuclearization, or go back to square one. Instead, he must accept President Moon Jaein's offer to have another inter-Korean summit. And it would be better for him to restart dialogue with the U.S. to find a negotiated solution to the nuclear standoff.