More than a month after first accepting Pyongyany’s invitiation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit North Korea on Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho had extended an invitation to Lavrov to visit the country on a trip to Moscow on April 10.
The long-time Russian foreign minister has previously traveled to Pyongyang, including in 2009 during an earlier round of negotiations on North Korean disarmament.
There were no discussions during the April 10 meeting of either Russian President Vladimir Putin or North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visiting each other’s capitals, Lavrov said at the time, but added that both leaders « regularly exchange statements. »
Shuttle diplomacy ramps up
North Korean and US officials have been spotted in Singapore, ostensibly planning the logistics of the event which was scheduled for June 12 in the city-state until Trump called it off last week.
He has not said definitively that the summit was back on, but the shuttle diplomacy between the three nations to find common ground has been a positive signal to observers that it will go ahead.
As Lavrov arrives in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un’s right-hand man Kim Yong Chul will be in New York meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo . Trump confirmed Kim’s travel in a tweet on Tuesday, and said the trip was a « solid response » to his letter from last week to Kim Jong Un.
