Report: North Korean leader to visit Russia in first half of 2001

Kim will visit Russia next year

MOSCOW (AP) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will visit Russia early next year, the Interfax news agency reported Sunday, citing a senior Foreign Ministry official.

President Vladimir Putin extended an invitation to the reclusive leader during a meeting in Pyongyang in July as part of efforts to act as an intermediary between North Korea and the West.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov told Interfax that Kim's visit would come in the first half of the year. He had previously said a visit might come sometime in 2001, but didn't say when.

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Kim is known to have made only one official foreign trip as leader of his isolated and poverty-stricken Stalinist state, to China in May. He has promised to visit Seoul as part of reconciliation efforts with South Korea.

The once-close relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang cooled in the 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed. In 1995, Russia opted out of a defense agreement with the North, and it pursued stronger economic and political links with South Korea.

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U.S. State Department
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
Korean Information Service
South Korean government
North Korea: Politics and Government
North Korea
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