North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit North Korea, Voice of Korea, a North Korean international broadcasting service, said on Thursday.
“After the dinner, dear comrade Kim Jong Un cordially invited President Putin to visit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at any convenient time,” it said, adding that Putin “accepted the invitation.”
Russian Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said earlier that the issues of Putin’s return visit to North Korea was not on the agenda.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a more than five-hour-long meeting at the Vostochny Spaceport on Wednesday, their first summit in four years. Both leaders held talks with the participation of delegations from the two countries as well as in the one-on-one format.
The agenda of the talks included issues of economic and humanitarian cooperation, the situation in the region as well as many other topics. The two leaders continued communication at the official dinner.
Earlier, the North Korean leader thanked President Putin for arranging his trip to the Vostochny Spaceport in Russia’s Far East, said the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“Comrade Kim Jong Un expressed his deep gratitude to Comrade Putin for making personal efforts to arrange a sincere visit to a major spaceport and accompanying him there,” the North Korean news agency reported.
According to KCNA, while visiting the assembly and test facility of the launch vehicle jointly with Putin, Kim listened to explanations about the technical features, assembly and launch of Soyuz-2, Angara and other launch vehicles.
The North Korean leader also acquainted himself with the ongoing construction of launch pads for Soyuz-2 and Angara launch vehicles and listened to a story about their operation, as well as Russia’s achievements and experience in the space industry and prospects for further development.
Kim expressed his admiration with “the noble spirit and traditions of a strong Russia that paved the way to space exploration.”
According to KCNA, the Vostochny Spaceport has made a major contribution to space exploration “by means of successfully ensuring launches of spacecraft and satellites of various uses as it plays an important role in encouraging the social and economic development in the Amur Region and the Far East.”
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is seeking to develop its own space program. On August 24, Pyongyang failed it second attempt to launch a reconnaissance satellite. During the first lunch on May 31, the Chollima-1 carrier rocket with the Malligyeong-1 reconnaissance satellite crashed into the Yellow Sea after an abnormal starting of the second-stage engine.
The North Korean leader arrived in Russia on an official visit at the invitation of the Russian president. Russia is the first state Kim is visiting after the coronavirus pandemic when his country’s borders were strictly closed.
Kim’s previous visit to Russia was held from April 24 through 26, 2019. He arrived in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok onboard his personal train. His talks with Putin in Vladivostok consituted their first-ever personal meeting.