ZCZC
BFF-52
RUSSIA-NKOREA-DIPLOMACY
N.Korea’s Kim to meet Putin in Russia in late April: Kremlin
MOSCOW, April 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will
visit Russia in late April for his first meeting with President Vladimir
Putin, Moscow said Thursday.
“Following an invitation from Vladimir Putin… Kim Jong Un will visit
Russia in the second half of April,” the Kremlin said in a statement on its
website. The announcement comes after North Korea announced it had tested a
new tactical weapon with a “powerful warhead”, as denuclearisation talks with
Washington appear to stall.
The Kremlin did not provide details on the exact date or location of the
meeting, but Russian, South Korean and Japanese media earlier reported it
would be in Russia’s Far East.
Putin has long expressed his readiness to meet with Kim.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier Thursday that Fiona Hill, an
advisor to US President Donald Trump, had been in Moscow for talks with her
Russian counterpart Yuri Ushakov.
US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun was also in Moscow, the
State Department said.
A Pyongyang official was meanwhile seen inspecting a train station in the
Far Eastern city of Vladivostok, near Russia’s border with North Korea,
Russian state media reported.
Russia has relatively warm ties with the reclusive regime and provides
some food aid.
The last summit between a Russian and North Korean head of state came in
2011, when Kim’s father Kim Jong Il travelled to Siberia to meet Dmitry
Medvedev, then Russia’s president.
Kim Jong Il, who died shortly after the visit, told Medvedev his state was
prepared to renounce nuclear testing.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1811 hrs