SEOUL \u2014 Assistance from Russia had rendered sanctions imposed on nuclear-armed North Korea \u201cineffective,\u201d South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Friday after discussing the matter with his United States counterpart Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Lee and Trump met at a Group of Seven summit in France this week, where they discussed the long-running standoff between South Korea and its northern neighbor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him sanctions and pressure are ineffective,\u201d Lee told reporters in the capital Seoul.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe effectiveness of sanctions has diminished due to military cooperation between North Korea and Russia stemming from the war in Ukraine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven a small amount of assistance from Russia is of great help to North Korea,\u201d the president added.<\/p>\n
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By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pyongyang is under multiple sets of sanctions over its nuclear program, and the two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950\u201353 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.<\/p>\n While in France, Trump signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war in the Middle East, and speculation has been rife that his administration would next shift its diplomatic focus to North Korea.<\/p>\n Lee said Trump had told him in the French town of Evian that \u201cthe time had come to pay attention to the North Korea issue.\u201d<\/p>\n On Sunday, Trump posted an uncaptioned photo of himself and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un taken at a meeting in Singapore in 2018.<\/p>\n \u2018Irreversible\u2019<\/p>\n Kim has sought to enhance his standing with his allies, sending troops and munitions to aid Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine.<\/p>\n He also hosted Xi Jinping in the North\u2019s capital Pyongyang soon after the Chinese president had held back-to-back summits in Beijing with Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n The White House said Xi and Trump had \u201cconfirmed their shared goal of denuclearizing North Korea\u201d during their summit in China.<\/p>\n But neither Pyongyang nor Beijing mentioned the issue in their official statements following the Xi-Kim summit, which experts interpreted as a sign of China\u2019s tacit acceptance of North Korea\u2019s nuclear status.<\/p>\n Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an \u201cirreversible\u201d nuclear state since a 2019 summit between Kim and Trump in Vietnam\u2019s capital Hanoi collapsed over the scope of denuclearization and sanctions relief.<\/p>\n Lee insisted on Friday that the international community \u201ccannot abandon the goal of denuclearization\u201d of North Korea.<\/p>\n \u201cThe key point President Trump made was that it was unfortunate that possible measures had not been taken before North Korea became a nuclear-armed state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI also said that we can no longer deal with the North Korean nuclear issue in the same way we deal with other countries, and President Trump agreed,\u201d Lee added.<\/p>\n \u2018In love\u2019<\/p>\n Trump met Kim three times during his first term \u2014 once declaring they were \u201cin love\u201d \u2014 as he pushed to hammer out a long-coveted deal on denuclearization.<\/p>\n Lee said on Friday Trump told him that he wanted to pursue a new meeting with Kim \u201cif there is a way to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that in a meeting at the Vatican this week, he had invited Pope Leo XIV to visit next year to attend World Youth Day in Seoul.<\/p>\n \u201cI also requested that a visit to North Korea be arranged, if possible, alongside a visit to the DMZ during his trip,\u201d said the president, referring to the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pope responded that he would actively consider and pursue the matter,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL \u2014 Assistance from Russia had rendered sanctions imposed on nuclear-armed North Korea \u201cineffective,\u201d South Korean President 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