North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waited a twenty-hour journey to reach Russia and visit President Vladimir Putin.

According to the official KCNA news agency, the leader is traveling aboard a train that has left Pyongyang.

Kim “left on his (armored) train on Sunday afternoon to visit the Russian Federation,” according to KCNA, which had reported a day earlier that the leader will visit the neighboring country “soon.”

Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin will hold a summit conference, according to North Korean state media

Experts estimate that the meeting between the two leaders, likely in Vladivostok, in Russia’s far east and near North Korea, will result in an arms sales deal.

These sources indicate that Putin wants to obtain North Korean artillery shells and anti-tank missiles for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, in exchange for advanced technology for satellites and nuclear submarines and food aid for North Korea.

On Monday, the KCNA agency said Kim “will soon visit the Russian Federation at the invitation of (…) Putin.” The Kremlin also confirmed that the trip would take place “in the coming days.”

The announcement ended days of speculation after official US sources told The New York Times that Kim would travel by armored train to the Russian city of Vladivostok to meet Putin.

The North Korean leader, who does not normally travel abroad, has not left North Korea since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The United States warned last week that Pyongyang would pay “a price” if it supplied Russia with weapons for its war in Ukraine.

Washington said Russia could use North Korean weapons to attack Ukraine’s winter food supply and heating infrastructure in an effort to “seize territory belonging to another sovereign nation.”

Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, indicated that the meeting between Putin and Kim is part of “soft diplomatic blackmail” by Russia on South Korea, as Moscow does not want Seoul to hand over weapons to Kiev.

Kim has repeatedly shown his preference for trains for international travel. His father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, was known for his fear of flying.

The current leader apparently does not trust his private jet because he is concerned “about the possibility of aerial bombardment by Washington,” said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

In 2019, Kim took a 60-hour round-trip train journey from Pyongyang to Hanoi after a summit with then-US President Donald Trump. (JO)