MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who is on an official visit to Russia, visited military and civil aircraft production facilities in the Far Eastern Russian city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Friday, the Russian government said on its website.
Shortly after his arrival to the city, the second largest in Russia’s Far Eastern region of Khabarovsk, Kim headed to the Yuri Gagarin Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant (KnAAZ). The North Korean leader was accompanied by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, who doubles as the minister of industry and trade.
Among other things, Kim visited the production of Su-35 and Su-57 fighter jets and the SSJ passenger plane.
"Kim Jong Un and Denis Manturov surveyed fighter jet production facilities and the final assembly workshop for Su-35 fighter jets and the Su-57 fifth-generation front-line aviation complex," the Russian government said in a statement.
"The guests were also invited to take a look at production facilities participating in the joint effort to build the import-substitution Superjet-100 (SJ 100) [civil aviation aircraft]. KnAAZ is manufacturing sections of fuselage and wing components. After that, the delegation visited the final assembly workshop for SJ 100, located on the territory of another facility - the production center of the Yakovlev corporation’s civil aviation branch," the statement says.
The facility is now testing SJ 100 with Russian systems and is preparing to hold airfield tests of planes equipped with Russian-made PD-6 engines.
"At the end of the visit, the North Korean leader and the deputy premier - head of the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry watched a demonstration flight of a Su-35 fighter jet," the Russian government said.
The delegation was greeted by the plant’s employees, who gathered near the memorial to KnAAZ workers killed in World War Two.
KnAAZ is manufacturing advanced warplanes for the Russian Defense Ministry, including Su-35 and Su-57 fighter jets. Together with the Yakovlev branch, it is running a civil aviation project to produce Sukhoi Superjet 100 planes.
The North Korean leader is visiting Russia on an invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On September 13, Putin and Kim met at the Vostochny Spaceport in Russia’s Far Eastern Amur Region where they became acquainted with its infrastructure and held talks. Interaction took place both with the participation of their respective delegations and in a one-on-one format discussing economic cooperation, humanitarian issues, the situation in the region and other topics.