MOSCOW (AFP) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia Tuesday ahead of a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that the United States has warned could see an arms deal to support Moscow’s assault on Ukraine.
Making a rare foreign trip and his first since the pandemic, Kim waved from the doorway of his heavily armored private train as it departed Pyongyang on Sunday evening, according to images published by North Korean state media.
Kim will meet Putin at an unspecified location in Russia’s Far East region later this week, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Putin is currently attending the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, the Far East city closest to the North Korean border, though there has been no indication that the pair would hold their talks there.
Reporters granted access to the Russian leader at the forum refrained from asking Putin details of the visit but he told journalists he would soon visit the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a Russian spaceport some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Vladivostok.
“I’ve got my program there, and when I get there you’ll know,” he said, according to Russian news agencies.
Experts say Moscow will likely seek artillery shells and antitank missiles from North Korea, which wants advanced satellite and nuclear-powered submarine technology in return.
The White House warned last week that North Korea would “pay a price” if it supplies Russia with weaponry for the conflict in Ukraine.
Defying the warnings, Kim left North Korea for Russia on Sunday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
He was accompanied by top North Korean military officials, including officials in charge of weapons production and space technology, it added.
Peskov said the two leaders would “cooperate on sensitive areas that should not be the subject of public disclosure and announcements”.
On Tuesday, Russian state news agency Ria Novosti said Kim had crossed the border, with images showing the train with dark green carriages being pulled along a track by a Russian Railways locomotive.
Kim is travelling to Russia with his top military officials including Korean People’s Army Marshal Pak Jong Chon and Munitions Industry Department Director Jo Chun Ryong, analysts said.
This indicates a Putin-Kim summit “is likely to heavily focus on Russia and North Korea’s possible military cooperation,” Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
Moscow sent Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to Pyongyang in July. He has recently mooted bilateral joint naval drills.