Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met at the Russian Vostochny cosmodrome in eastern Russia. MM. Kim and Putin will hold talks about “commercial relations” and “international affairs” at the spacecraft launch base, Russian news agencies reported.
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The exchange between the two presidents, expected and commented at length for several days, began with a handshake, according to a video published by the Kremlin on Wednesday, reports Agence France Presse.
All subjects are on the table, the Russian president declared straight away. But ahead of the meeting, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov announced that the two men were to talk in particular about “sensitive subjects”.
According to Washington, the meeting could lead to an agreement to sell arms from North Korea to Russia to support the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
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It was Vladimir Putin who chose the location of the meeting, a location which owes nothing to chance. The Vostochny Cosmodrome, which came into operation seven years ago, is Russia’s main space launch facility. It is a symbol of Moscow’s national spaceflight ambitions. The two men also began the meeting with a visit to a rocket assembly and launch site on the cosmodrome. “The leaders inspected sites of the new cosmodrome: an assembly workshop for the Angara launcher (new generation of Russian rockets, editor’s note), a launch site for Soyuz-2 launchers and a launch site under construction for Angara,” indicated the Kremlin in a press release.
Departing Pyongyang on Sunday evening aboard an armored train, Kim Jong Un is making his first trip abroad since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. He had already met Mr. Putin during his previous trip abroad, to Vladivostok in 2019.