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North Korea’s Kim Jong Un arrives for meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin

By Ellie Kaufman, Jolie Lash and Kevin Shalvey, ABC News Sep 12, 2023 | 10:44 AM
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(NEW YORK) — North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has arrived at the Vostochny Cosmodrome for his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin greeted him in front of the building. The two shook hands and walked inside.

“I’m very glad to see you,” Putin said upon greeting Kim, according to RIA News, a state-run media outlet.

The high-level summit began at about 2:30 p.m. local time, coming after days of speculation over when and where the meeting would take place. The Kremlin, which announced on Monday that the meeting was planned, had said on Tuesday it would take place in the coming days.

The two are expected to discuss a trade deal that may include North Korea supplying Russia with ammunition, which may be used in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Those discussion have been “actively advancing,” a U.S. official told ABC News last week.

Kim left Pyongyang on Sunday night, travelling into Russia on a slow-moving train that crossed the border into far eastern Russia Tuesday.

Putin on Monday began a two-day trip to Vladivostok, a port city near eastern Russia’s border with North Korea, where he attended an economic forum, Russia’s TASS news agency said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

ABC News’ Shannon Crawford and Ben Gittleson contributed to this story.

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