2023-09-11 22:06:00
(CNN) –– North Korean leader Kim Jong Un left Pyongyang on Sunday afternoon for Russia on a private train, North Korean state media KCNA confirmed Tuesday morning local time.
Kim is accompanied by senior party, government and military officials, KCNA reported.
Hours earlier, Pyongyang and Moscow reported that Kim will travel to Russia at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin. This comes amid warnings from the United States that the two leaders could close an arms deal.
The United States Government he said, the week last week, that such a meeting could take place as part of Russia’s efforts to find new arms suppliers to use in its war against Ukraine.
Neither North Korea nor Russia have specified when or where the visit would take place, or what would be on the agenda for a possible face-to-face meeting. The Kremlin said in a statement Monday that Kim would make an official visit to Russia “in the coming days,” while North Korean state media said they would “meet and have a talk.”
However, it seems likely that the two leaders will meet in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, where They met for the first time, in April 2019. Putin would have arrived in Vladivostok this Monday, as reported by Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov on state television Russia 24. Kim, for his part, appears to be on a train heading to Russia, a South Korean government official told CNN.
The visit will be Kim’s first overseas trip since the Covid-19 pandemic. With its borders sealed as a result for much of the past three years, North Korea has only recently begun to relax travel restrictions.
CNN’s Jake Kwon, Gawon Bae, Jessie Yeung, Brad Lendon, Yoonjung Seo and Anna Chernova, all contributed to this report.
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