North Korea confirmed on Monday that its leader Kim Jong Un will visit Russia “soon” for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.. As reported in the West last week, this alliance between Kim and Putin appears more necessary than ever given Russian isolationism and the growing need for weapons.
According to the Yonhap Agency, the confirmation came after South Korean government officials indicated that a train with special characteristics had departed from North Korea towards the border with Russia. Kim, obsessed with a possible attack or poisoning, usually travels in his own bunker train to avoid surprises.
The North Korean state news agency KCNA assured this Monday that “esteemed comrade Kim Jong Un will meet and hold discussions with comrade Putin during the visit.”
Above all Putin traveled to Vladivostok this morninglikely the venue for talks with Kim, as happened at their previous bilateral meeting in 2019.
The Kremlin also confirmed that Kim would visit Russia “in the coming days” at Putin’s invitation, according to Russian news agency TASS, but no further details of the meeting were given.
However, the agencies did not provide any further details, including the timing of Kim’s arrival or when the summit would take place.
According to the EFE agency, the Kremlin spokesman said: Dmitry Peskovruled out meetings of this kind during the Eastern Economic Forum hosted by the Russian city, so the meeting should take place when the event ends on Wednesday.
This would be Kim’s first trip abroad since 2019, as the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic prompted the regime to strictly close its borders in early 2020, and just this summer the hermetic Asian country once again allowed entry of people from the country under strict protocols Abroad.
Following the collapse of disarmament negotiations with the US in 2019, North Korea has shown a growing rapprochement with China and Russia, which appears to have intensified in recent months as part of the increasing polarization to which the war in Ukraine contributes.