Kim Jong Un has departed the North Korean capital aboard his heavily-armored private train as Pyongyang and Moscow confirmed a meeting will soon take place with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
NORTH KOREA — Kim Jong Un has departed the North Korean capital aboard his heavily-armored private train, North Korean state media KCNA said Tuesday, as Pyongyang and Moscow confirmed a meeting will soon take place with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Neither country has specified when or where the visit would take place, nor what would be on the agenda of any potential face-to-face. The Kremlin said in a statement Monday that Kim would pay an official visit to Russia “in the coming days,” while North Korean state media said they would “meet and have a talk.”
It will also be only Kim’s 10th trip since assuming power in 2011. All of those came in 2018 and 2019, as the North Korean leader engaged in negotiations over his nuclear weapons and missile programs in three meetings with then-US President Donald Trump – one in Singapore, one in Hanoi and one in the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea.
North Korea is already under United Nations and US sanctions imposed over Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction program. Following Monday’s announcement from both countries, the White House urged North Korea to “not provide or sell arms to Russia.