North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit Russia in a highly anticipated meeting with President Vladimir Putin, sparking concerns of a potential arms deal that amid the Ukraine war.
Kim’s visit is coming at Putin’s invitation and it would take place in the “coming days," a statement on Kremlin’s website said. This was confirmed by official KCNA news agency.
Citing unidentified South Korean government sources that a Kim-Putin meeting is possible as early as Tuesday.
AP journalists near the North Korean-Russia border spotted a green train with yellow trim — similar to the train used by Kim Jong Un during his previous foreign trips.
This comes as South Korean government sources said that a trian likely left Pyongyang on Sunday evening.
The Yonhap news agency and some other media published similar reports. Japan’s Kyodo news agency cited Russian officials as saying that Kim was possibly heading for Russia in his personal train.
South Korea’s Presidential Office, Defence Ministry and National Intelligence Service did not immediately confirm these details.
This comes after US officials released intelligence last week that North Korea and Russia were arranging a meeting that would take place within this month as they expand their cooperation in the face of deepening confrontations with the states, according to AP.
Possible Venue for Kim-Putin Meeting
A possible venue for the meeting is the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, where Putin arrived Monday to attend an international forum that runs through Wednesday, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
This is also the site of Putin’s first meeting with Kim in 2019. 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 he’s capable of grinding out a long war of attrition.
That could potentially put more pressure on the United States and its partners to pursue negotiations as concerns about a protracted conflict grow despite their huge shipments of advanced weaponry to Ukraine over the past 17 months.
North Korea has possibly tens of millions of artillery shells and rockets based on Soviet designs that could potentially give a huge boost to the Russian army, analysts say.
With agency inputs