North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has departed for Russia, where he is expected to hold a rare meeting with Vladimir Putin, AP reported on Sept. 11.
The US expects that the two leaders will discuss possibilities of arms transfer and North Korea military aid to support Russia's war in Ukraine. However, the exact date of the meeting was not yet known.
North Korea has provided infantry rockets and missiles to Russia in 2022, and Moscow has been seeking further arms supplies since then to bolster its war efforts in Ukraine.
In the spring of 2023, Moscow reportedly approached Pyongyang with the offer of food supplies in exchange for weapons. North Korea has been heavily militarized since the end of the war with its Southern Korean neighbors in 1953 but suffers from chronic food shortages.
Earlier in August, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea's capital to convince the country's leadership to provide artillery ammunition that Russian forces could use in its war against Ukraine.
