Kim, Putin vow to seek closer ties at first talks

Vladivostok, April 25 

Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un met for their first-ever summit on Thursday, vowing to seek closer ties as they look to counter US influence.

Putin emerged from the talks saying that like the United States, Russia supports efforts to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula and prevent nuclear conflicts.

But he insisted that Pyongyang needs guarantees of its security and sovereignty, and took a veiled swipe at Washington for trying to strong-arm North Korea."We need to... return to a state where international law, not the law of the strongest, determines the situation in the world," Putin said.

The summit in Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok came with Kim locked in a nuclear stand-off with Washington and Putin keen to put Moscow forward as a player in another global flashpoint.

The two leaders shook hands and shared smiles before heading into one-on-one talks that lasted nearly two hours, longer than expected, at a university campus on an island off the Pacific coast city. Both men said they were looking to strengthen ties that date back to the Soviet Union's support for the founder of North Korea Kim Il Sung. — AFP