A police officer engages in a security operation at a train station in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok on April 24, 2019. Photo courtesy of Yonhap
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, April 24 (NNN-Yonhap) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to arrive by train in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok on Wednesday afternoon for a much anticipated summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin the following day.
Accompanied by top party, military and state officials, Kim arrived at Russia’s border city of Khasan in the morning on his way to Vladivostok, hours after the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on his departure for Russia earlier in the day.
His entourage included two vice chairmen of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee — Kim Phyong-Hae and O Su-yong — and top diplomats, Ri Yong-ho and Choe Son-hui, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency.
The state media did not mention whether first lady Ri Sol-ju was on board.
Kim Yong-chol, one of the North’s key nuclear negotiators involved in talks with the United States, was not mentioned either. It is the first time that he has not accompanied the leader on an overseas trip.
