SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will stop in Russia, the two countries said Monday, and is expected to hold a highly anticipated meeting with President Vladimir Putin, prompting Western considerations about an imaginable arms delivery. Agreement for Moscow. War in Ukraine.
A report on the Kremlin’s online page said the stopover was at Putin’s invitation and that he would take a position “in the coming days. “This was also reported through North Korea’s official news agency, which said the leaders would meet, without specifying when or where.
“Respectable Comrade Kim Jong Un will meet and hold talks with Comrade Putin during the visit,” they said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Kim would lead their delegations in the talks and could also meet “one-on-one if necessary. “He added that Putin would host an official dinner for Kim.
The talks will focus on bilateral relations, Peskov said. “Like any of our neighbors, we feel compelled to expand good relations with each other,” he added.
One conceivable location would be the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, where Putin arrived on Monday to attend a foreign forum that will last until Wednesday, according to Russian news agency TASS. The city, located about 680 kilometers north of Pyongyang, was also the site of Putin’s meeting. First meeting with Kim in 2019.
It would be the first time Kim has traveled abroad since the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced North Korea to impose strict border controls for more than three years to protect its failing fitness system. Even though Kim has been more comfortable with planes than his notoriously hostile father. , has also used his non-public exercise in past meetings with Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and former U. S. President Donald Trump, reviving a symbol of his family’s dynastic rule.