The president of North Korea, kim jong unplans to travel to Russia this month to meet with the Russian presidentVladimir Putin, with the aim of increasing the bilateral military cooperation and discuss a possible arms supply deal.
The spokeswoman for the White House Security Council, Adrienne Watson, has warned on Monday that “arms negotiations between Russia and the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, official name of North Korea) they are actively advancing“.
“We have information that Kim Jong Un hopes these contacts will continue and that they include a diplomatic meeting at the leadership level in Russia. We urge the DPRK to cease its arms negotiations with Russia and fulfill the public commitments raised by Pyongyang not to provide or sell weapons to Russia,” Watson added in statements reported by the Bloomberg news agency.
As reported by US and allied sources to the newspaper ‘The New York Times’, Kim will travel from the North Korean capitalPyongyang, until the Russian port city of Vladivostok in an armored train, a visit that could also include a stop in Moscow.
It is expected that both go to an economic forum which is held at the Far Eastern Federal University of Vladivostok from September 10 to 13, a meeting that the North Korean already witnessed in April 2019 during his last trip to the country. On his agenda, Kim also plans to visit the pier where the Russian Pacific fleet is located, according to the ‘NYT’.
This comes after last week US Intelligence confirm that Moscow and Pyongyang are “actively” in their negotiations for a possible arms agreement, according to the CNN network.
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White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has reported that Putin and Kim have exchanged letters promising in them”increase their bilateral cooperation“. “A high-level discussion may happen in the coming months,” he warned.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met with Kim last July amid heightened tensions in the region and with Russia immersed in its invasion of Ukraine. On his visit Shoigu transferred a proposal to Kim to perform a series of military exercises sets with Chinese.