North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will visit Russia in coming days at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
"At the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chairman of State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un will pay an official visit to the Russian Federation in the coming days," the Kremlin said in a statement.
During Kim's visit to Russia, negotiations between delegations and, if necessary, a one-on-one meeting with Putin are planned, the Kremlin spokesman added.
Earlier, Dmitry Peskov said that Russia and North Korea maintain good mutually respectful relations and contacts take place at various levels.
In July, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his visit to Pyongyang, with the two officials discussing issues of global and regional security. The Russian minister also took part in a military parade on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the armistice in the Korean War of 1950-1953.
The North Korean leader's last trip abroad was also to Vladivostok in 2019, where he held his first summit with Putin. After the Summit, Putin called Kim a "very open person", saying that they had detailed, open discussion of sanctions, the US and denuclearization.
Kim, in turn, thanked Putin for a substantive tete-a-tete dialogue on issues of mutual interest and expressed hope that the negotiations would continue in a similarly constructive way.
The summit lasted for 3.5 hours, nearly two of which the leaders spent talking face to face.