North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is expected to travel to Russia within the month to meet with Vladimir Putin to discuss the sale of weapons, US officials have said.
The rumoured discussions follow a visit from a Russian delegation to North Korea last month, led by defence minister Sergei Shoigu, during which it is believed Putin’s confidante attempted to persuade his hosts to sell artillery ammunition to Russia.
The official said the US isn’t sure exactly where or when the meeting would take place, but the Pacific port city of Vladivostok would be a likely possibility given its relative proximity to North Korea.
The White House reported last week that it had intelligence indicating that Putin and Kim swapped letters following Shoigu’s visit.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the letters were “more at the surface level” but that Russian and North Korean talks on a weapons sale were advancing.
National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson claimed that Kim Jong-un believes these discussions would continue.
She said: “We have information that Kim Jong Un expects these discussions to continue, to include leader-level diplomatic engagement in Russia.”
She added that the US is urging North Korea “to cease its arms negotiations with Russia and abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia”.
Only Iran, another anti-Western ally of Russia, is known to be supplying the Kremlin with military equipment for its “special military operation” in Ukraine – an accusation it routinely denies despite a surfeit of evidence to the contrary.
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