North Korean leader Kim Jong Un left the Russian Far East on Sunday aboard his armored train bound for the North Korean border, Russian news agencies reported, after a remarkable visit to Russia that began on Tuesday.
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“The farewell ceremony of the leader of the DPRK took place at the Artiom-Primorsky-1 station, where Kim Jong Un’s armored train was already located,” the Ria Novosti agency reported, using the acronym of the official name of North Korea and publishing a video of the leader’s departure .
In these pictures we see Mr. Kim in his train, waving goodbye to the Russian delegation accompanying him, led by Environment Minister Alexander Kozlov. Then “Farewell to Slavyanka,” a Russian patriotic march, sounds as the train departs under cloudy skies.
“Kim Jong Un’s train headed to the Khassan border crossing. The distance […] is about 250 kilometers,” said the TASS agency.
Earlier on Sunday, Kim Jong Un received a gift from the governor of the Primorye region in Russia’s Far East in the form of five explosive drones, a reconnaissance drone and a bulletproof vest, according to TASS.
Highly symbolic military gifts in the context of Western fears about a possible agreement on supplies of North Korean weapons and ammunition that Moscow needs for its offensive in Ukraine.
“Outlook”
On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un showed their closeness in an exchange at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, with the Russian president touting “prospects” for military cooperation despite international sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear and nuclear programs.
During their meeting, the two leaders gave each other a rifle, gifts with symbolic value in the current context.
Since then, the Kremlin has assured that “no agreement” was signed at that meeting, without, however, reassuring the West.
“The Governor [Oleg Kojémiako] North Korea offered Kim Jong Un a range of bulletproof protection for attack operations and “special clothing that cannot be detected by thermal imaging cameras,” regional services also told TASS agency.
According to TASS, Mr. Kim also met North Korean students from the Far Eastern Federal University at the Vladivostok campus on Sunday and attended a water show at the city’s oceanorium.
The official North Korean news agency KCNA, in turn, described the atmosphere of the last few days in the major city in the Russian Far East as “fervent and warm,” “at a time when a new era of “friendship, solidarity and cooperation” is beginning in the history of development DPRK-Russia relations.”