SEOUL (AP) – A North Korean train presumably carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has departed for Russia for a possible meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, South Korean media said yesterday.
Citing unidentified South Korean government sources, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the train likely left the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on Sunday evening and that a Kim-Putin meeting is possible as early as today.
The Yonhap news agency and some other media published similar reports. Japan’s Kyodo news agency cited Russian officials as saying that Kim was possibly heading for Russia in his personal train.
South Korea’s Presidential Office, Defence Ministry and National Intelligence Service didn’t immediately confirm those details.
United States (US) officials released intelligence last week that North Korea and Russia were arranging a meeting between their leaders that would take place within this month as they expand their cooperation in the face of deepening confrontations with the US.
A possible venue for the meeting is the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, where Putin arrived yesterday to attend an international forum that runs through tomorrow, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. The city was also the site of Putin’s first meeting with Kim in 2019. After a complicated, hot-and-cold relationship for decades, Russia and North Korea have been drawing closer to each other since the situation Ukraine in February 2022.
Some analysts said a potential meeting between Kim and Putin would be more about symbolic gains than substantial military cooperation.
