Kim Jong Un arrived Friday in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in far eastern Russia and is expected to visit a plant that builds fighter jets as South Korea has said it's concerned his visit is focused on expanding military cooperation in a possible arms-for-technology deal. The visit to Komsomolsk-on-Amur is one of several the North Korean leader is making on a days-long trip to Russia. Arriving on an armoured train from North Korea, he rolled into Russia on Tuesday and was met by officials at a station near the Russia-North Korea border. After a long train trip north, on Wednesday he met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome and was greeted by Putin with a 40-second handshake. On Thursday, he largely disappeared from view, before reappearing local time Friday as his convoy swept out of Komsomolsk-on-Amur station. Putin told Russian state TV after the summit that Kim will travel to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he will visit an aircraft plant, and then go to Vladivostok to v
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North Korea's Kim Jong Un has a penchant for travelling by train, a tradition deeply rooted in his family's history. But why does Kim Jong Un prefer trains over planes? Watch the video to find out
Indian oil companies are exploring the possibility of using close to USD 600 million of their dividend income stranded in Russia to buy oil from that country, officials said on Thursday. India's top four oil companies -- Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), a unit of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Oil India Ltd and ONGC Videsh Ltd -- haven't been able to repatriate dividend income they accrue from their investments in Russian oil and gas fields. That money is lying in their bank accounts in Russia but could not be brought to India due to tough Western sanctions that followed Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. This is at a time when Russia has emerged as the top crude oil supplier to India, accounting for more than a third of all purchases New Delhi makes from overseas. Officials said one of the options could be to loan the money lying in Russian bank accounts to entities buying oil. These entities could repay the loan in India. The entities that buy oil from Russia include IOC and BPCL. "W
South Korea on Thursday expressed deep concern and regret over a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin that was apparently focused on expanding military cooperation as the two isolated, nuclear-armed leaders align over their escalating confrontations with the United States. Washington has warned that the summit on Wednesday between Kim and Putin could lead to a deal to supply ammunition for Moscow's war in Ukraine. There's widespread concern in Seoul that the North in return would receive advanced weapons technologies from Russia, including those related to military spy satellites, which would increase the threat posed by Kim's military nuclear program. We express our deep concern and regret that despite repeated warnings from the international community, North Korea and Russia discussed military cooperation issues, including satellite development, during their summit, said Lim Soo-suk, South Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesperson. Any
Index providers are 'increasingly tilted' to include India to fill the gap expected due to Russia's exclusion from JP Morgan's emerging market bond index
Russia is making an active bid to attract Indian travellers to visit Moscow -- a huge megalopolis and the historical, political and spiritual heart of the Russian Federation. The Moscow City Tourism Committee is promoting the city not only as a cultural capital but also as a business hub as it plans to onboard trade partners, tourists and vacationers. Moscow has also strengthened cooperation with the tourism sectors of allied nations, hosting familiarization tours for delegates and arranging business trips to showcase the city's tourism potential. To accommodate visitors, Moscow is improving its infrastructure: signs are now available in English and Chinese, all announcements on public transport are repeated in English, and hotels are also adapting to cater to the needs of guests from various countries and ensure a comfortable stay. "We are still on our way to restore the flow of Indian tourists in Moscow like it used to be before the pandemic," said Bulat Nurmukhanov, Head of ...
"Putin accepted the invitation with pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward the history and tradition of the Russia-DPRK friendship," the report said
The world is largely relying on North Korean and Russian media for information about the unusual train journey of leader Kim Jong Un to meet with President Vladimir Putin at a space facility. While news gathering is, to varying degrees, constrained by both authoritarian governments, the coverage by the countries' respective media this week is providing a window into the neighbours' unique news environments and how the summit is being presented to people in North Korea and Russia. The coverage shown to North Koreans is meant, like all media efforts there, to reflect the government's propaganda needs. The country's reporters have no higher aim than glorifying Kim for Koreans and the world. But Kim's trip to Russia, where foreign and local media have more access and leeway than in Pyongyang, has challenged how the North Korean media portray one of Kim's most important diplomatic moves in years. There are no independent television channels left in Russia since Putin invaded Ukraine, an
The official spokesperson of the US Department of State highlighted how "troubling" it is to see the cooperation between Russia and North Korea
North Korea may have tens of millions of aging artillery shells and rockets based on Soviet designs that could give a huge boost to the Russian army in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has welcomed the announcement, and said at the eastern economic forum on Tuesday that there is nothing about the project that could harm Russia in any way
Putin showed Kim around Russia's most advanced space rocket launch site in Russia's Far East and discussed the possibility of sending a North Korean cosmonaut into space
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have banned vehicles with Russian license plates from entering their territory, a joint and coordinated move in line with a recent interpretation of the European Union's sanctions against Moscow over its war on Ukraine. Estonia imposed the measure on Wednesday morning, matching similar actions by southern neighbours Latvia and Lithuania earlier in the week. Estonia's interior ministry said the decision by the Baltic nations which are all NATO members that border Russia followed the additional interpretation of the sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation published by the European Commission on September 8. Under the EU's decision, motor vehicles registered in the Russian Federation are no longer allowed to enter the territory of the 27-member bloc, including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Baltic states are among the most vocal European critics of Russia and President Vladimir Putin. The goal of the sanctions against Russia is to force the ...
Ending a global guessing game on when and where they would meet, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin convened at a rocket launch facility in Siberia on Wednesday in their first summit in four years. The talks between the two isolated, nuclear-armed leaders were expected to focus on expanding military cooperation amid their intensifying confrontations with the West. The decision to meet at Vostochny Cosmodrome, a major satellite launch facility, may communicate what Kim sees as the crucial next steps in his efforts to build a viable nuclear arsenal that could threaten the United States and its allies in Asia. Dangling North Korea's vast stockpiles of munitions Putin likely covets for his war in Ukraine, Kim in exchange could ask for badly needed economic aid and sophisticated weapons technologies to advance his military nuclear programme, experts say. Kim could push for Russian technology transfers on military reconnaissance satellites, a key asset o
One-on-one talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have ended, Russia's state news agency Tass reported Wednesday. The meeting of the two leaders at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Siberia followed wider talks between delegations headed by the two leaders. Before the talks, the two leaders toured some of the facilities of the strategic spaceport. In remarks before the private meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday his country's full and unconditional support for Russia's sacred fight to defend its security interests, in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine, and said Pyongyang will always stand with Moscow on the anti-imperialist front.
Kim arrived at Vostochny by train, after crossing into Russia early on Tuesday
The leaders of Russia and North Korea met at a remote Siberian rocket launch facility for a summit that underscores how the two leaders' interests are aligning in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States. The two men began their meeting with a tour of a Soyuz-2 space rocket launch facility, at which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un peppered Russian President Vladimir Putin with questions about the rockets. The meeting came hours after North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward the sea, extending a highly provocative run in North Korean weapons testing since the start of 2022, as Kim used the distraction caused by Putin's war on Ukraine to accelerate his weapons development. The leaders' decision to meet at Vostochny Cosmodrome, a major satellite launch facility, suggests that Kim is seeking Russian technical assistance in his efforts to develop military reconnaissance satellites, which he has described as crucial in enhancing the threat of h
The Sevastopol Shipyard in Russian-annexed Crimea was on fire Wednesday after a Ukrainian attack, and 24 people were injured, local Russian-installed official reported. Mikhail Razvozhayev, Moscow-appointed governor of the port city of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, said on Telegram on Wednesday that the fire was sparked by a missile attack. The official posted a photo of the fire with smoke billowing over it. The Sevastopol Shipyard is of strategic importance to Russia as vessels in its Black Sea fleet are being repaired there.
Lawyers for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich asked a United Nations body on Tuesday to urgently issue an opinion that he has been arbitrarily detained by Russia on espionage charges which are patently false. The request to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says Russia has failed to produce a shred of evidence in support of its accusations since the 31-year-old journalist was arrested on March 29 on a reporting trip to the city of Yekaterinburg, almost 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) east of Moscow. Russia is not imprisoning Gershkovich because it legitimately believes its absurd claim that he is an American spy, the Journal's request said. Instead, Russian President Vladimir Putin is using Gershkovich as a pawn, holding him hostage in order to gain leverage over and extract a ransom from the United States, just as he has done with other American citizens whom he has wrongfully detained. Jason Conti, executive vice president and general counsel of Dow Jones,