North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was to tour a Russian aircraft plant that builds fighter jets and then visit the country’s Pacific Fleet, but his exact whereabouts remained uncertain, as South Korea on Thursday expressed “deep concern and regret” that his visit has focused so far on expanding military cooperation.
A day after giving intense coverage to the Putin-Kim summit, Russian media outlets were silent on Kim as of Thursday afternoon. North Korean state media have been reporting on Kim’s activities in Russia a day late.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Thursday that
Kim had invited Putin to visit North Korea at a “convenient time” and that Putin accepted with “pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward” the history of friendship between the nations.
Putin told Russian state TV after the summit that Kim will travel to two more cities in Russia’s Far East on his own, flying to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he will visit an aircraft plant, and then go to Vladivostok to view Russia’s Pacific Fleet, a university and other facilities.
During their meeting on Wednesday at Russia’s spaceport in the Far East, Kim vowed “full and unconditional support” for Putin in what he described as a “just fight against hegemonic forces to defend its sovereign rights, security and interests”.
The decision to meet at the Vostochny Cosmodrome suggested that Kim was seeking Russian help in developing military reconnaissance satellites.
