North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is going to come to Russia in the coming days to meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss the issue of arms supplies to Moscow, Washington says.
Last week, the White House claimed that Russia is conducting secret negotiations with the DPRK on the supply of ammunition for the Russian army, which is waging war in Ukraine, writes the BBC.
"As we have already warned, negotiations on arms supplies between Russia and the DPRK are actively progressing," said Adrienne Watson, an official representative of the White House National Security Council. "We have information that Kim Jonh Un expects these discussions to continue, including diplomatic interaction at the level of leaders in Russia."
The New York Times was the first to report on the upcoming visit on Monday. According to the publication, Kim Jong Un, who rarely travels outside North Korea, is likely to travel to Vladivostok on his armored train and meet with Putin at the Eastern Economic Forum, which will be held on September 10-13.
"Putin wants to persuade Kim to send artillery shells and anti-tank missiles to Russia, and Kim would like Russia to supply North Korea with advanced satellite technologies and nuclear submarines," the NYT reports the words of the intelligence interlocutors.
According to them, the North Korean leader would also like to receive food aid.
As Adrienne Watson told reporters, during a recent visit to Pyongyang, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu tried to convince Pyongyang to sell ammunition to Russia.
She also recalled that Putin and Kim exchanged letters in which they talked about expanding bilateral cooperation.
"We call on the DPRK to stop negotiations with Russia on arms supplies and to comply with the commitments publicly made by Pyongyang not to supply or sell weapons to Russia," Watson said, warning of the possibility of imposing new sanctions in case of arms supplies.
Last week, the United States, Great Britain, South Korea and Japan made a joint statement at the UN that any deal to expand bilateral cooperation between Russia and the DPRK would violate Security Council resolutions, which Moscow itself supported.
According to them, after Shoigu's visit to Pyongyang, another group of Russian officials went to North Korea to continue negotiations on arms purchases.
The American press wrote last fall that Russia had bought millions of shells from the DPRK. Pyongyang and Moscow have denied that North Korea supplies Russia with weapons to wage war in Ukraine.
John Everard, who served as British ambassador to the DPRK in 2006-2008, told the BBC that now Kim Jong Un's visit to Russia may not take place at all.
"Kim Jong Un is an absolute paranoid in matters of personal security. He is doing everything possible to keep his movements secret, and if it became known that he plans to go to Vladivostok to meet with President Putin, then most likely he will simply cancel this event," he said.
