MOSCOW:North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia Tuesday ahead of a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that the United States has warned could see an arms deal to support Moscow’s assault on Ukraine.

Making a rare foreign trip and his first since the pandemic, an unsmiling Kim waved from the doorway of his heavily armored private train as it departed Pyongyang on Sunday evening, according to images published by North Korean state media.

Kim will meet Putin at an unspecified location in Russia’s Far East region later this week, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Putin is currently attending the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, the Far East city closest to the North Korean border, though there has been no indication that the internationally isolated pair would hold their talks there.

AFP/APP/Newspakistan.tv