Is Kim Jong un visiting Russia? On Monday, North Korea and Russia announced that, Kim Jong Un will be visiting Russia. This visit is creating quite a buzz because it’s highly anticipated that he will meet with President Vladimir Putin. A statement was mentioned on the official website for the kremlin that the invitation was from Putin’s behalf and will be held soon.

Is Kim Jong Un and Putin’s Powerful Partnership Unveiled?

The city, located about 425 miles (680 kilometers) from Pyongyang, North Korea, was the site of Kim’s first summit with Putin in 2019.

This trip will be Kim’s first foreign tour after more than three years of strict border controls that he imposed to save North Korea’s shaky healthcare system amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Where Kim showed greater comfort with air travel in comparison to his famous train rides, he has used his personal train for previous meetings with Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and former U.S. President Donald Trump, symbolizing his family’s dynastic rule.

Near the border between North Korea and Russia, reporters from the Associated Press saw a green train with yellow horizontal lines on the North Korean side of a border river station – a train that Kim used during previous foreign trips.

It was not clear whether Kim was on the train, which was seen arriving at the station and departing while going back and forth between the station and the countries’ connecting bridge until around 7 p.m. (1000 GMT).

Yonhap news agency and some other media also carried similar reports. Japan’s Kyodo News agency quoted Russian authorities as saying that Kim was likely traveling in his personal train.

According to American authorities, Putin’s attention could be focused on replenishing dwindling supplies in North Korea’s artillery depots and other ammunition stores. The purpose behind this could be to show power and to break Ukraine’s moral. This move might potentially exert more pressure on the United States and its allies to further negotiate as tensions have been rising for the past 17 months, despite Ukraine’s heavy weaponry build-up.

After decades of complex, fluctuating relations, Russia and North Korea are drawing closer since Moscow’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022. This alliance is purely for the need to cause unrest in the western nations, for Putin’s wish for military support and Kim’s aspiration to bolster his diplomatic initiatives.

North Korea blames Washington on the fact that they are responsible for making Russia take action on Ukraine. Besides Russia and China, North Korea stands as the sole nation acknowledging the independence of separatist regions in Eastern Ukraine. Donetsk and Luhansk have expressed their intent to dispatch reconstruction teams to these areas.

The United States has been accusing Russia of arming North Korea since last year, including selling artillery shells from Russian group Wagner. Both countries refuted to these allegations. However, concerns about their military cooperation escalated when, in July, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made an unusual visit to North Korea, where he witnessed demonstrations of weapons production and was honored at a large military parade where they displayed ICBMs.

American President Joe Biden’s Deputy National Security Advisor, John Finer, told reporters on Sunday that buying weapons from North Korea “could be the best and only option” open to Moscow as it seeks to sustain its military effort.

While travelling abroad on Air Force One, taking Biden from India to Vietnam, Finer said, “We have significant concerns about Russia potentially obtaining weapons, additional weapons, It is interesting to consider what it says when Russia, in its quest for partners who can help it, comes to North Korea for a minute.” Russia, which has always safeguarded its most crucial weaponry technologies, even from important allies like China, cannot readily offer North Korea significant technological transfers that might enable the small-scale shipment of military equipment through a modest rail connection between the countries. In Tallinn, Estonia, Associated Press journalist Jamey Keaten, in Washington, Amir Madhani, in China’s Fangcheng, Dake Kang, and Anjie Hao contributed to this collaboration

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