SEOUL
\nJoined by his top military officials handling his nuclear-capable weapons and munitions factories, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia on Tuesday, where he is expected to hold a rare meeting with President Vladimir Putin that has sparked Western concerns about a potential arms deal for Moscow\u2019s war in Ukraine.
\nKim left North Korea by train on Sunday and was \u201caccompanied by leading officials of the Party, government and armed forces organs,\u201d the Korean Central News Agency said.
\nEarlier on Monday, South Korea\u2019s Chosun Ilbo newspaper, citing unidentified South Korean government sources, reported that the train likely left the North Korean capital of Pyongyang Sunday evening and that a Kim-Putin meeting was possible as soon as Tuesday.
\nThe Yonhap news agency and some other media published similar reports, and the Kremlin issued a statement Monday confirming that Kim was to pay \u201can official visit to the Russian Federation in the coming days,\u201d at Putin\u2019s invitation.
\nJeon Ha Gyu, spokesperson of South Korea\u2019s Defense Ministry, said in a briefing that the South\u2019s military assessed that Kim\u2019s train crossed into Russia sometime early Tuesday. He didn\u2019t elaborate on how the military obtained the information.
\nNorth Korean state media showed photographs of Kim walking past honor guards and crowds of civilians holding the national flag and flowers, and also of him waving from his green-and-yellow armored train before it left the station. Kim\u2019s delegation likely includes his foreign minister, Choe Sun Hui, and his top military officials, including Korean People\u2019s Army Marshals Ri Pyong Chol and Pak Jong Chon.
\nKremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin and Kim will lead their delegations in talks and could also meet \u201cone-on-one if necessary.\u201d He added that Putin will host an official dinner for Kim.
\nThe talks will focus on bilateral ties, Peskov said. \u201cAs with any of our neighbors, we feel obliged to develop good, mutually beneficial relations,\u201d he added.
\nA possible venue is the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, where Putin arrived Monday to attend an international forum that runs through Wednesday, according to Russia\u2019s TASS news agency. The city, located about 425 miles north of Pyongyang, was also the site of Putin\u2019s first meeting with Kim in 2019.
\nU.S. 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 United States.
\nAccording to U.S. officials, Putin could focus on securing more supplies of North Korean artillery and other ammunition to refill draining reserves and put further pressure on the West to pursue negotiations amid concerns about a protracted war in Ukraine.
\nIn exchange, Kim could seek badly needed energy and food aid and advanced weapons technologies, including those related to intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarines and military reconnaissance satellites, a senior South Korean official told Media.
\nKim was last seen in public in images published by North Korean state media last week, attending the launch of what Kim lauded as the country\u2019s first \u201cnuclear attack submarine.\u201d He suggested the vessel was capable of launching nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, though analysts quickly cast doubt on the veracity of the claims.
\nThere are concerns that potential Russian technology transfers would increase the threat posed by Kim\u2019s growing arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles that are designed to target the United States, South Korea, and Japan.
\nAfter decades of complicated, hot-and-cold relations, Russia and North Korea have drawn closer to each other since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The bond has been driven by Putin\u2019s need for war help and Kim\u2019s efforts to boost the visibility of his partnerships with traditional allies Moscow and Beijing as he tries to break out of diplomatic isolation and position North Korea as part of a united front against Washington.
\nThe United States has been accusing North Korea since last year of providing Russia with arms, including artillery shells sold to the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Both Russian and North Korean officials have denied such claims. But speculation about the countries\u2019 military cooperation grew after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made a rare visit to North Korea in July, when Kim invited him to an arms exhibition and a massive military parade in the capital where he showcased ICBMs designed to target the U.S. mainland.
\nFollowing Shoigu\u2019s visit, Kim toured North Korea\u2019s weapons factories, including a facility producing artillery systems where he urged workers to speed up the development and large-scale production of new kinds of ammunition. Experts say Kim\u2019s visits to the factories likely had a dual goal of encouraging the modernization of North Korean weaponry and examining artillery and other supplies that could possibly be exported to Russia.
\nSome analysts say a meeting between Kim and Putin would be more about symbolic gains than substantial military cooperation.
\nRussia which has always closely guarded its most important weapons technologies, even from key allies such as China could be unwilling to make major technology transfers with North Korea for what is likely to be limited war supplies transported over a small rail link between the countries, they say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL Joined by his top military officials handling his nuclear-capable weapons and munitions factories, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia on Tuesday, where he is expected to hold a rare meeting with President Vladimir Putin that has sparked Western concerns about a potential arms deal for Moscow\u2019s war in Ukraine. Kim left […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-355541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n