Russia’s Putin offered North Korea’s Kim with a Russian rifle of the ‘highest high quality’ and obtained a gun in return.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korean chief Kim Jong Un gifted one another rifles after they met at an area centre in Russia week, the Kremlin stated, whereas the Russian chief additionally offered his counterpart from Pyongyang with a glove from a cosmonaut’s area swimsuit.
Travelling onboard his armoured practice from North Korea, Kim met with Putin on Wednesday on the Vostochny Cosmodrome within the Amur area of the Russian Far East, the place the 2 leaders greeted one another warmly with a 40-second handshake.
Requested whether or not the 2 had exchanged presents, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Thursday that Putin gave Kim a high-quality Russian-made rifle and a glove from a spacesuit “that had been in area a number of instances”.
In flip, Kim gave Putin a North Korean-made gun, amongst different presents, Peskov stated.
The Russian president “gave [Kim] a rifle from our manufacturing of the best high quality. In return, he additionally obtained a North Korean-made rifle,” Peskov stated.
Putin has a eager curiosity within the out of doors life and looking, posting quite a few photographs of himself over time engaged in out of doors pursuits within the Russian countryside with different senior officers.
Moscow additionally confirmed on Thursday that Putin “gratefully accepted Kim’s invitation” to go to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, which North Korea’s state tv had earlier introduced.
Peskov stated Moscow will first “shortly put together” to ship Russia’s International Minister Sergei Lavrov to Pyongyang, together with his journey anticipated in October, earlier than a Putin go to may be organized.
It could be Putin’s second journey to North Korea. He final visited in July 2000 to satisfy Kim’s late father Kim Jong-il, simply months after being elected to the presidency. Kim final visited Russia in 2019.
Whereas Putin returned to Moscow after their assembly on Wednesday, Kim’s go to is predicted to proceed for a number of extra days, the Kremlin stated.
On Friday, Kim arrived within the Russian Far Japanese metropolis of Komsomolsk-on-Amur to go to a facility the place Russian fighter jets are constructed, Russia’s state-run TASS information company reported.
TASS reported that Kim was met by the regional governor and different officers on a pink carpet on the city’s railway station. He was then whisked off to the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Plane Plant, which produces Russia’s most trendy warplanes, together with the Su-35 and Su-57, TASS stated.
Russian state information company RIA Novosti revealed a video which confirmed Kim’s armoured practice pulling into the Komsomolsk-on-Amur station as North Korean officers waited by a specifically constructed ramp and pink carpet. Shortly afterwards, his convoy swept out of the station to go to the plane plant.
Putin informed Russian state TV earlier that Kim would additionally journey to Vladivostok to view Russia’s Pacific fleet, a college and different services.
In North Korea, state media have praised Kim’s summit with Putin as “historic”.
South Korean media reported that officers in Seoul are monitoring whether or not North Korea and Russia will announce joint navy drills following the assembly of the 2 leaders.
There may be rising concern about elevated navy cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang as Putin and Kim’s delegations embody senior navy figures.
South Korea’s Defence Ministry spokesman Jeon Ha-kyou stated there “have been quite a few such predictions” concerning nearer navy ties between Putin and Kim.
“Whereas conserving that risk in thoughts, [we] will proceed to carefully monitor for it,” the spokesman stated, in keeping with South Korea’s Yonhap Information Company.
