Kremlin welcomes start of ‘direct dialogue’ at Kim-Trump summit

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump shake hands at the conclusion of their meetings at the Capella resort on Sentosa Island Tuesday, June 12, 2018 in Singapore. (Pool photo by SUSAN WALSH / AP)

The Kremlin on Wednesday said it welcomed the unprecedented meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as the start of direct dialogue.

“Just the fact that such a meeting took place and direct first-hand dialogue was started can only be welcomed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

The Kremlin said the meeting “proved correct the Russian side and President Vladimir Putin, who said there is no alternative to political and diplomatic methods to resolve the problem on the Korean peninsula and the only way is direct dialogue, which we are seeing now.”

Such meetings, whatever their results, “help reduce tensions on the peninsula and move the situation away from that critical point where it was literally a few months ago,” Peskov said.

“This can only be a cause of satisfaction.”

But the actual results of Kim and Trump’s meeting remain to be seen, Peskov said, adding that such ingrained problems could not be resolved immediately.

Russia maintains fairly close ties with North Korea, with which it shares a short land border.

Moscow praised a summit between the leaders of the two Koreas at the border in April as a positive step.