Russia’s Putin introduced North Korea’s Kim with a Russian rifle of the ‘highest high quality’ and acquired 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 introduced his counterpart from Pyongyang with a glove from a cosmonaut’s house swimsuit.

Travelling onboard his armoured prepare 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 house 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 very best high quality. In return, he additionally acquired a North Korean-made rifle,” Peskov stated.

Putin has a eager curiosity within the outside life and searching, posting quite a few photographs of himself through the years engaged in outside 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 Overseas Minister Sergei Lavrov to Pyongyang, along with his journey anticipated in October, earlier than a Putin go to will be organized.

It will 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 fashionable warplanes, together with the Su-35 and Su-57, TASS stated.

Russian state information company RIA Novosti printed a video which confirmed Kim’s armoured prepare 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 instructed 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 army drills following the assembly of the 2 leaders.

There’s rising concern about elevated army cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang as Putin and Kim’s delegations embrace senior army figures.

South Korea’s Defence Ministry spokesman Jeon Ha-kyou stated there “have been quite a few such predictions” concerning nearer army ties between Putin and Kim.

“Whereas preserving that risk in thoughts, [we] will proceed to carefully monitor for it,” the spokesman stated, in keeping with South Korea’s Yonhap Information Company.