Team News Riveting
Vostochny Spaceport, September 13
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a marathon meeting that lasted over five hours at the Vostochny Spaceport on Wednesday, their first summit in four years.
Putin pointed out that the meeting took place “at a special time,” as this year marks the 75th anniversary of the DPRK (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, known as North Korea), which the Soviet Union was the first country to recognize. It also marks the anniversary of the end of the Korean War, in which Moscow and Pyongyang fought on the same side.
Kim Jong Un termed relations with Russia as “the top priority” for his state and expressed confidence in the victory of the Russian army and people in their “sacred fight.”
On Tuesday, Kim Jong Un arrived on his train in Russia’s Far Eastern Primorye Region. Russian Natural Resources Minister Alexander Kozlov, Russia’s co-chair of the intergovernmental commission, welcomed him at the train station in the border city of Khasan. Putin was already in Vladivostok. On Wednesday, the Russian president traveled by plane from the Primorye Region to the Vostochny Spaceport.
The North Korean leader arrived at the spaceport on his train, which pulled up at the launch vehicle assembly and test building. He made his way to the meeting with Putin in his Maybach limousine. The two leaders shook hands and posed for a photo at the main entrance to the assembly and test building. Putin told Kim Jong Un about the Vostochny Spaceport, and the North Korean leader thanked him for the invitation to visit Russia “despite his busy schedule.”
The talks between the two countries’ delegations took place on the first floor of the engineering building of the unit designed for Soyuz-2 carrier rockets. They lasted for over an hour (in 2019 similar talks lasted for about three and a half hours.)
After the talks involving the delegations, Putin and Kim Jong Un held hour-long one-on-one talks (their previous face-to-face conversation lasted about two hours), although this was not announced beforehand, as Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov merely indicated that it would be possible if needed.
A formal dinner in honor of Kim Jong Un followed the talks. Kamchatka crab dumplings, white amur fish soup and taiga lingonberries with cedar nuts and condensed milk were in the menu for the North Korean leader.
