MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/. The dates of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to North Korea will be coordinated through diplomatic channels, including during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's trip to Pyongyang, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"Putin is not yet going to North Korea, he has an invitation, he accepted it with gratitude," the Kremlin spokesman told reporters, adding that "the dates of a potential visit will be coordinated through diplomatic channels." "Including, perhaps, during Foreign Minister [Sergey] Lavrov's visit to Pyongyang in October," Peskov added.
On September 23, Lavrov said at a press conference following his work at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly that he might visit North Korea next month.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Russia on September 12-17 and held talks with Putin at the Vostochny Spaceport in Russia’s Far Eastern Amur Region, after which Peskov reported that Putin gratefully accepted Kim's invitation to visit the country. According to the spokesman, the details of the visit will be coordinated. Peskov had not previously confirmed the assumption that Putin, like Lavrov, would travel to North Korea in October. He has also not yet disclosed a date for the Russian president's visit to China, promising that it would be done soon.
On September 20, during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a member of the CCP Politburo, Putin said that he gladly accepted Chinese President Xi Jinping's invitation to come to China in October for the One Belt One Road forum. On October 1, in a congratulatory telegram on the occasion of the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Russian leader wrote that his forthcoming talks with Xi Jinping would "facilitate further extension of the entire range of constructive Russian-Chinese ties benefitting our friendly peoples and ensuring safety and stability in the Eurasian continent and the entire world."