North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia on Wednesday morning ahead of his much-anticipated summit with president Vladimir Putin.
Nataliya Vasilyeva and Vladimir Isachenkov
April 24 2019 7:06 AM
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia on Wednesday morning ahead of his much-anticipated summit with president Vladimir Putin.
North Korean media published photos of Mr Kim saluting an honour guard and waving to people carrying flowers at a railway station before boarding his khaki-green armoured train for the lengthy journey.
Russian news agency Tass quoted a local official as saying Mr Kim was given flowers, bread and salt at the Hasan train station after crossing the border.
Preparations for the meeting in Vladivostok, a port city on the Pacific, on Thursday, were held in secrecy because of North Korean security concerns, Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said.
Mr Ushakov said the talks would focus on the standoff over the North’s nuclear programme, noting that Russia will seek to “consolidate the positive trends” stemming from US president Donald Trump’s meetings with Mr Kim.
The secretive leader will be the first North Korean premier to travel to Russia since his late father, Kim Jong Il, visited in 2011.
Mr Kim has had two summits with Mr Trump, but the latest in Vietnam in February collapsed because North Korea wanted more relief from sanctions than Washington was willing to give for the amount of nuclear disarmament offered by Pyongyang.
Some experts say Mr Kim could try to bolster his country’s ties with Russia and China as he has increasingly expressed frustration at the lack of US steps to match the partial disarmament moves he took last year.
It is not clear how big of a role Russia can play in efforts to restart the nuclear diplomacy.
But the summit could allow Mr Putin to try to increase his influence in regional politics and the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear programme.
