Also on Saturday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called for talks with the rival North aimed at peaceful coexistence, telling Seoul’s Liberation Day ceremony that the two Koreas need safeguards to prevent conflict and should work to replace their armistice with a “peace regime”.
Lee urged dialogue to formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War, which ended in a ceasefire but no peace treaty, and said the talks could explore ways to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.
Pyongyang has rejected Lee’s overtures and criticised US-South Korean military exercises as provocations.
On Thursday, Putin drew Tokyo’s condemnation with a visit to an island off Hokkaido, claimed by Japan, that Moscow seized in the days after Japan’s 1945 surrender.
