North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) talks with Russia officials upon arriving in Russia’s Far East city of Vladivostok on April 24, 2019, in this photo provided by the Primorsky Krai government. Photo courtesy of Yonhap
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, April 25 (NNN-Yonhap) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to hold his first summit with President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s Far East city of Vladivostok on Thursday, with a peaceful resolution of Pyongyang’s nuclear quandary expected to top the agenda.
The much anticipated summit will be a key test of Kim’s diplomatic outreach aimed at breaking a logjam in a denuclearization parley with the United States, easing sanctions pressure and catalyzing his lackluster drive for economic development.
Kim and Putin are expected to meet in the afternoon at Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island in the Pacific port city, where their national flags are hoisted, security heightened and the adjacent Ajax Bay closed to fend off any suspicious approaches.
Flanked by top party, military and state officials, Kim arrived by train in Vladivostok on Wednesday afternoon for his first foreign trip since the collapse of his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February.
NNN-YONHAP
