Putin and Xi agree on a plan for defusing NKorea missile crisis
In a joint statement after Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met in Moscow Tuesday, their two foreign ministries laid out a joint plan for North Korea to declare a “moratorium on testing nuclear devices and ballistic missiles,” while the US and South Korea would “refrain from large-scale joint maneuvers.” Hinting at the US, both spoke against the “non-regional powers’” military presence in Northeast Asia “and its buildup under the pretext of countering North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.” They specifically opposed US missile defense systems in the region (THAAD) as “seriously damaging the strategic security interests of regional powers, including Russia and China”