Kim Jong Un of North Korea allegedly travelling to Russia – South Korean media

Per South Korean media and government officials, it seems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is currently travelling on a train towards Russia.

Russia and North Korea have not confirmed the meeting officially.

The newest news in the media is that Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin are likely to have a meeting soon to talk about weapons. The exact date and place of this meeting have not been announced yet.

If the visit happens, it would be Kim’s first trip to another country since the Covid-19 pandemic started. North Korea, which has closed its borders for most of the past three years, has only recently started to loosen travel restrictions.

Kim has only gone on 10 trips since taking control in 2011. All of those happened in 2018 and 2019, when the leader of North Korea talked with then-US President Donald Trump about his nuclear weapons and missiles. They had three meetings in Singapore, Hanoi, and the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea.

Kim also went to China four times during those two years to meet with the leader of China, Xi Jinping. He also met with Putin once in Vladivostok in April 2019. Afterwards, we went on a trip to the DMZ in 2018 to meet with the South Korean President at that time, Moon Jae-in.

Vladivostok is located 130 km (80 miles) away from the North Korea border.

The leader of North Korea likes to travel in a fancy train that is protected and his father also did the same. However, most of his trips to other countries are not done by train. Three out of the nine trips were taken by airplanes, and two trips, which were both to the DMZ, were done by car.

The Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, went to Pyongyang in July to ask them to sell artillery ammunition.

Jake Sullivan, a person from the White House who helps keep the country safe, said that North Korea will face consequences if it makes a deal with Russia to get weapons. He didn’t say exactly what those consequences would be.

North Korea is already being punished by the United Nations and the United States for having weapons of mass destruction.

The possible meeting between Putin and Kim could allow Pyongyang to obtain weapons that have been banned from them for 20 years, especially for their nuclear missile program.

Additionally, this comes after over a year and a half of fighting in Ukraine, which has significantly damaged the Russian military and caused a shortage of resources.