North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Russia by train yesterday, a day before his much-anticipated summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that comes amid deadlocked diplomacy on his nuclear program.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency published photographs of Kim, dressed in a black coat and a fedora, meeting with Russian officials at Russia’s Khasan train station near its border with the North.
Russian news agency Tass quoted a local official as saying that Kim was given flowers, bread and salt at the station.
Photo: AFP / Press Service of Administration of Primorsky Krai / Alexander Safronov
Kim was traveling to the Pacific port city of Vladivostok for a summit with Putin today. He became the first North Korean leader to travel to Russia since his father, Kim Jong-il, visited in 2011.
Earlier yesterday, North Korean state media confirmed Kim’s departure aboard his khaki-green armored train from an undisclosed location in North Korea.
Yonhap, citing an analysis of North Korean photos on Kim’s departure, speculated that he might have left from a rural area, not Pyongyang.
Kim was expected to arrive in Vladivostok late yesterday afternoon and attend a dinner reception hosted by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev, according to South Korean media.
After his summit with Putin, Kim might tour neighboring facilities or landmarks before departing for home tomorrow, the reports said.
Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov told Russian media that the summit would focus on North Korea’s nuclear program and that Russia would seek to “consolidate the positive trends” stemming from US President Donald Trump’s meetings with Kim.
In February, Kim’s second summit with Trump in Hanoi ended without any agreement because of disputes over US-led sanctions. There have since been no publicly known high-level contacts between the US and North Korea, although both sides say they are still open to a third summit.
Kim wants the US to ease the sanctions to reciprocate partial disarmament steps he took last year.
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