Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov to visit North Korea next month

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that he will visit North Korea in October as part of follow-up measures to the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong earlier this month, Yonhap News Agency reported.

He made the remarks during a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Lavrov said that his upcoming visit to North Korea follows the agreement between Putin and Kim Jong Un.

On September 13, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un held a meeting at a Russian spaceport. According to observers, Putin's visit to Pyongyang will be discussed during Lavrov's visit to North Korea, according to Yonhap News Agency report. Notably, Putin earlier this month accepted Kim Jong Un's invitation to visit Russia.

During his visit to Russia, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Russia will emerge victorious in the fight to “punish the evil forces”, adding that he would "always be standing with Russia”, CNN reported.

He praised Russia for having “stood up against the hegemonic forces” to defend its sovereignty and security – a veiled reference to the US and the West – and said he has expressed “the full and unconditional support to all that Russia does in response”, CNN reported.

During his visit, the North Korean leader also met Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu at the Knevichi airfield in Russia’s Vladivostok, TASS reported. The Russian Defence Minister showed the Kinzhal missile system on the MiG-31I missile carrier to Kim Jong Un at the Knevichi airfield located in the Primorye region.

The commander of long-range aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Lieutenant General Sergey Kobylash, reported on the flight and technical capabilities of the hypersonic aircraft missile system. Kim Jong Un was also made familiar with modern operational-tactical aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces at the Knevichi airfield in Primorye, TASS reported.

Kim Jong Un also inspected the engineering centre and production shops of the Yuri Gagarin Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Plant in Russia's Far East. During his visit to the aviation plant, he was accompanied by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.

The Russian government in a statement said, "The Chairman of State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim Jong-un, was shown the engineering centre and production shops of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Plant named after YuA Gagarin (KnAAZ named after YuA Gagarin), a branch of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), and also the site of the production centre of the parent company of the civilian division of UAC Yakovlev."

During the visit, Kim Jong-un and Denis Manturov inspected the assembly production of fighter aircraft and the final assembly shop for the Su-35 aircraft and the fifth-generation Su-57 aviation complex, according to the Russian government statement.