Seoul, Sep 11: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit Russia, both countries said on Monday, and he is expected to hold a highly anticipated meeting with President Vladimir Putin that has sparked Western concerns about a potential arms deal for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
A brief statement on the Kremlin’s website said the visit is at Putin’s invitation and would take place “in the coming days”.
It also was reported by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, which said the leaders would meet – without specifying when and where.
“The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un will meet and have a talk with Comrade Putin during the visit,” it said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said delegations from both countries will meet, but he didn’t confirm plans for a bilateral session between Putin and Kim, saying the leaders will meet one-on-one “if necessary”.
The visit would be Kim’s first foreign trip since the COVID-19 pandemic, which had forced North Korea to enforce tight border controls for more than three years to shield its poor health care system.
While Kim has shown to be more comfortable using planes than his famously flight-adverse father, he has also used his personal train for previous meetings with Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and former US President Donald Trump, reviving a symbol of his family’s dynastic rule.
Associated Press journalists near the North Korea-Russia frontier saw a green train with yellow trim – similar to one used by the reclusive Kim during previous foreign trips – at a station on the North Korean side of a border river.
It was unclear whether Kim was on the train, which was seen moving back and forth between the station and the approach to the bridge that connects the countries. It had not crossed the bridge as of 7 pm (1000 GMT).
Citing unidentified South Korean government sources, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported the train likely left the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on Sunday evening and that a Kim-Putin meeting is possible as early as Tuesday.
The Yonhap news agency and some other media published similar reports. Japan’s Kyodo news agency cited Russian officials as saying Kim was possibly heading for Russia in his personal train.
According to US officials, Putin could focus on securing more supplies of North Korean artillery and other ammunition to refill declining reserves as he seeks to defuse a Ukrainian counteroffensive and show that the Russian president is capable of grinding out a long war of attrition. (AP)
