Putin late in summit again

By Jun Ji-hye

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is notorious for being tardy to summits with foreign leaders, was 34 minutes late for a meeting with President Moon Jae-in, Wednesday.

Their bilateral summit was scheduled to begin in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok at 1 p.m. local time.

As soon as he landed in Vladivostok, President Moon headed for the summit venue inside Far Eastern Federal University and arrived on time. But his Russian counterpart did not appear.

Moon waited with his aides including Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon for Putin.

With Russian officials giving no explanation about why Putin was late, he appeared at the venue at 1:34 p.m.

At the start of the meeting, the Russian president said he looked forward to discussing various issues, including the North Korean nuclear and missile issues that “we think are concerning.”

Putin has been habitually late for meetings with foreign leaders. He was four hours late for a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2014 and arrived two hours late at talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last year.

When meeting with Seoul’s former President Park Geun-hye in 2013 and last year, Putin was also late both times.

A Cheong Wa Dae official said, “We were expecting President Putin to be late this time as well. It was not surprising when he did not appear on time.”