PYONYANG, June 18. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Pyongyang on a state visit at the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim welcomed the Russian president at the airport.
This will be Putin’s third meeting with Kim since 2019.
Long road
On his way to North Korea, Putin crossed six time zones and made a stopover in Russia’s Siberian Republic of Yakutia.
This is Putin’s second visit to North Korea in nearly 24 years. He visited Pyongyang in July 2000, two months after his presidential inauguration, when North Korea was ruled by Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il.
Putin and Kim Jon Un met in 2019 when the North Korean leader visited Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok where he arrived by a train.
New page
A new page in Moscow’s relations with Pyongyang was turned after the leaders’ new meeting in September 2023 when Kim paid another official visit to Russia and toured Russia’s Far Eastern Amur, Khabarovsk, and Maritime Regions/ When he was visiting Russia’s Vostochny spaceport, he invited the Russian president to visit his country at any convenient time.
Visit’s program
The visit’s substantive part will be held on June 19. The two leaders are expected to spend at least nine hours together. The official welcoming ceremony is scheduled for noon in Pyongyang. Then, after a traditional photo session, Putin and Kim will hold talks, which are expected to last for about 90 minutes.
After the talks, the leaders will continue speaking tete-a-tete during a stroll about the North Korean leader’s residence and a tea party.
The talks will be crowned by signing a number of joint documents and the leaders will make statements for the media.