North Korea has all along contended that it needs its nuclear arsenal to defend itself against what it sees as United States hostility and wants concrete reassurances of its safety, including the removal of the American nuclear threat as an integral part of the denuclearisation of the entire Korean Peninsula.
In Washington, the State Department said the USA will continue to work with the global community to achieve North Korea's denuclearization, avoiding direct comment on the summit between Kim and Putin.
The two leaders had an in-depth discussion on ways for their countries to promote strategic communication and tactical collaboration in the course of ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in the region, KCNA said.
At the meeting in Vietnam between the two leaders, Trump had demanded sanctions relief only if North Korean abandoned its nuclear weapons program.
"The DPRK will gird itself for every possible situation", Kim added.
Just a week ago, Pyongyang demanded the removal of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from the stalled nuclear talks, accusing him of derailing the process.
But he also insisted that the North needed "guarantees of its security, the preservation of its sovereignty".
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Trump has said the findings cleared him of any wrongdoing and has called for an investigation into the start of the probe. Trump said he "thought after two years we'd be finished with it". "These aren't like impartial people".
But Putin, keen to use the summit to burnish Russia's diplomatic credentials as a global player, said he believed any US guarantees might need to be supported by the other nations involved in previous six-way talks on the nuclear issue.
Kim suggested the end of the year as a deadline for the U.S.to come up with a new proposal acceptable to Pyongyang.
He also told Putin the situation on the Korean Peninsula has reached a "critical point" and whether tensions resume will "entirely depend on the USA future attitude".
After Thursday's summit in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, about 120 kilometres from the North Korean border, Putin stressed that Moscow and Washington both want North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons. "There is a much simpler way to deal with it and that is to denuclearize", he said, adding: "I think it's critically important that we all remain in lockstep in enforcing the U.N. Security Council resolutions that sanction North Korea". Kim and Putin met there for the first time Thursday, spending about three and a half hours together.
The Russian president emphasized that North Korea needed security and sovereignty guarantees that are achievable through the reinstatement of the power of global law. "Chairman Kim himself asked us to inform the American side of our position", said Putin.
"What we see is an outreach to try to find a way to deal with it". He also had lunch with the local governor and business people in Vladivostok, before boarding his armored train for the return journey to North Korea.
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