North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has arrived in Russia, Japanese media reported on Tuesday, for a discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim left for Russia on Sunday accompanied by top arms industry and military officials and the foreign minister.
A train carrying the North Korean leader arrived at Khasan station, which is the main gateway to Russia’s Far East from North Korea, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported citing an unnamed Russian official source.
Russian news agency Interfax also reported on Kim’s arrival citing footage from Rossiya-1 TV state channel. The footage showed green train cars and a Russian Railways locomotive driving across the bridge over a river.
Even South Korea’s Defence Ministry spokesman said it is believed that Kim entered Russia early on Tuesday.
Kim, who does not travel abroad frequently, has made just seven trips abroad and went across the inter-Korean border twice in his 12 years in power. Four of the trips were to China.
Russia says there will be negotiations
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said that Kim’s visit will be a “full-fledged”, adding that there will be negotiations between two delegations and if required, the leaders will continue their communication in a one-on-one format.
Russian President Putin reportedly arrived in Vladivostok on Monday and is scheduled to attend the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum. Peskov has said that Putin’s meeting with Kim will happen after the forum and the leaders have no plans for a news conference, as per Russian news agencies.
There has been no confirmation of the location of the meeting or whether Kim would attend the economic forum.
Arms deal between Russia and North Korea?
The US and its allies have been raising concerns over the signs of closer military cooperation between Russia and North Korea. It will be Kim’s second summit with Putin, after they met in 2019 on his last trip abroad.
The US officials have said that the arms talks between Russia and North Korea are actively advancing and that the two leaders are likely to discuss providing Russia with weapons for the war in Ukraine.
North Korea and Russia, however, have denied that the former would be supplying arms.
The US State Department has said that any transfer of arms between the two would violate UN Security Council resolutions, under which any arms transactions with North Korea is banned.
“We, of course, have aggressively enforced our sanctions against entities that fund Russia’s war effort…and will not hesitate to impose new sanctions appropriately,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.
(With Reuters inputs)