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North Korea's Kim Arrives In Russia Ahead Of Expected Meeting With Putin

By RFE/RL September 12, 2023

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has arrived in Russia ahead of an expected meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who U.S. officials say may be seeking weaponry and ammunition to bolster Russia's war in Ukraine.

Russia's RIA Novosti news agency showed footage of Kim arriving after dark on September 12 at what it said was a train station near Vladivostok.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency earlier said Kim had traveled aboard his personal armored train accompanied by members of the ruling party, government, and military.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on September 12 confirmed that Kim had entered Russia, but did not indicate Kim's final destination.

Putin is in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok attending an economic forum; Peskov said the two will meet after the forum, and that the meeting would include a lunch in Kim's honor.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap later published a photo it said showed the train in Ussuriysk, a city about 60 kilometers (about 40 miles) north of Vladivostok that has a sizable ethnic Korean population.

The Kremlin last week confirmed earlier media reports that Kim planned to travel to Russia, at Putin's invitation.

Kim is expected to seek economic aid and military technology for his isolated country.

Unnamed U.S. officials, meanwhile, have told The New York Times that Putin might be seeking ammunition or artillery to bolster Russian forces, now trying to hold back a three-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Kim is apparently accompanied by Jo Chun Ryong, a ruling party official in charge of munitions policies who joined him on recent tours of factories producing artillery shells and missiles, according to South Korea's Unification Ministry.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will be part of the Russian delegation, Peskov said.

Kim is making his first foreign trip since the pandemic, during which North Korea imposed tight border controls for more than three years. After decades of hot-and-cold relations, Russia and North Korea have drawn closer since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"We urge [North Korea] to abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia," White House National Security Council spokesman Adrienne Watson said in a statement earlier.

With reporting by AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/north-korea-russia-putin-kim- weapons-ukraine-war/32588814.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.