North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may soon travel to Russia to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss a possible arms deal, according to a news report. In its report published on Monday, The New York Times, citing unidentified \u201cAmerican and allied officials\u201d, said that Kim may travel to Vladivostok next week, Yonhap News Agency reported. \u201cIn a rare foray from his country, Mr. Kim would travel from Pyongyang, North Korea\u2019s capital, probably by armoured train, to Vladivostok, on the Pacific Coast of Russia, where he would meet with Mr. Putin,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth leaders would be on the campus of Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok to attend the Eastern Economic Forum, which is scheduled to run September 10 to 13,\u201d it added. The White House National Security Council (NSC) declined to confirm the report when asked but said Kim may be expecting high-level dialogue in Russia. \u201cAs we have warned publicly, arms negotiations between Russia and the DPRK (North Korea\u2019s official name) are actively advancing,\u201d NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson told Yonhap News Agency, citing Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu\u2019s trip to Pyongyang in July that she said sought to \u201cconvince Pyongyang to sell artillery ammunition to Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have information that Kim Jong-un expects these discussions to continue, to include leader-level diplomatic engagement in Russia,\u201d the NSC spokesperson added. John Kirby, NSC coordinator for strategic communications, earlier warned that Pyongyang may be considering providing additional weapons and military equipment to Russia for use in the latter\u2019s ongoing war in Ukraine, also noting that the leaders of North Korea and Russia may have discussed such deals in letters they have exchanged since Shoigu\u2019s trip to Pyongyang. A State Department spokesperson said a second group of Russian officials had traveled to North Korea following Shoigu\u2019s visit there for \u201cfollow-on discussions about potential arms deals\u201d. \u201cAny arms deal between the DPRK and Russia would directly violate a number of UN Security Council resolutions,\u201d the spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency. \u201cWe urge the DPRK to cease its arms negotiations with Russia. And we are taking action directly by exposing and sanctioning individuals and entities working to facilitate arms deals between Russia and the DPRK,\u201d the official added, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea.<\/p>\n
Shoigu was earlier reported to have said that Russia and North Korea are considering holding a joint military exercise with China. The New York Times report said a delegation of some 20 North Korean officials, \u201cincluding some who oversee security protocols for the leadership\u201d, traveled to Vladivostok in late August, indicating an upcoming trip by Kim. \u201cOne potential stop for Mr. Kim after Vladivostok, an official said, is Vostochny Cosmodrome, a space launch center,\u201d said the report, noting North Korea may be seeking to secure advanced technology for satellites and nuclear-powered submarines from Russia in exchange of its weapons. Pyongyang unsuccessfully fired two space launch vehicles each carrying a military reconnaissance satellite in late May and August. The reclusive regime has said that it will attempt another launch in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may soon travel to Russia to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss a possible\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[497,500,219,290,265,498,499],"class_list":["post-2675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-arms-deal","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-north-korea","tag-russia","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-russian-defence-minister-sergei-shoigu","tag-vladimir-putin"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}