The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s invitation for Russian officials to visit North Korea, after the Russian president hosted Mr Kim at a Russian space centre and held talks on bilateral ties.
Key points:
- Kim Jong Un met with Vladimir Putin in Russia earlier this week to discuss greater cooperation
- The visit stoked concerns that North Korea could help Russia bolster its military in Ukraine, and provide Kim with sensitive missile technology
- The Kremlin says Russian Foreign Minister Dmitry Peskov will travel to North Korea in October
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Mr Putin “gratefully” accepted the invite and that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would travel to Pyongyang in October. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Mr Putin has rarely travelled abroad.
The invite was made during a summit in eastern Russia at which they discussed military matters, the war in Ukraine and helping North Korea’s satellite program.
“At the end of the reception, Kim Jong Un courteously invited Putin to visit the DPRK at a convenient time,” North Korea’s state news agency said, referring to North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The news stokes US concerns that a revived Moscow-Pyongyang axis could bolster Russia’s military in Ukraine and provide Mr Kim sensitive missile technology.
Has Putin ever visited North Korea?
Yes. Mr Putin met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il — Kim Jong Un’s father — in Pyongyang in July 2000.
It was the first time a Russian or Soviet leader had visited North Korea.
However, Mr Putin has not been to North Korea to meet Kim Jong Un, with the leaders first meeting in April 2019 in Vladivostok.
Who else has visited Kim in North Korea?
In 2019, Donald Trump became the first sitting US president to visit North Korea.
He met Mr Kim in the Korean demilitarised zone (DMZ).
The pair walked into the North, shook hands again in front of North Korean press, and walked back into the South for their sit-down discussion.
It was the third meeting between the two leaders.
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For his first foreign trip as leader in 2018, Mr Kim travelled to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
He returned to China in May for a summit with Xi in the city of Dalian and returned to Beijing in June.
In 2019, Mr Kim visited China for a fourth time, travelling to Beijing.
Then in June 2019, Mr Xi visited the North for the first time since he was elected in 2012.
This came almost 10 years after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang for talks in October, 2009.
Is Putin allowed to leave Russia?
Since the war in Ukraine began, Mr Putin has been staying close to home and has not left Russia so far this year.
He missed a summit of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) group in South Africa in August as well the G20 summit in India in September.
This comes after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest in March.
The ICC has the power to exercise its jurisdiction over persons for the most serious crimes of international concern.
It has accused Mr Putin of deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.
Russia has denied its forces have engaged in war crimes or forcibly taken Ukrainian children.
The Rome Statute of the ICC requires members to comply with its arrest warrants.
However, North Korea is not a signatory of the Rome Statute.
ABC/Reuters