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Kim Jong Il to Arrive in Moscow Today
DPRK leader Kim Jong Il is to arrive in Moscow on Friday, nine days after leaving his country by train.
The 21-car train carrying the 59-year-old Kim and his entourage was to arrive at the Yaroslavskye Station around 10 p.m. (1800 GMT) Friday night. After his first night in Moscow at the Kremlin guest house, Kim will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.
The trip was Kim's first to Russia as Chairman and his third abroad since he took power after his father and president, Kim Il Sung, died in 1994. He visited China twice, in May last year and in January. Putin visited the DPRK capital Pyongyang in July last year.
According to Russian media, Kim will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before meeting Putin at the Kremlin. He then will attend a dinner and concert to be held in his honor.
On Sunday, Kim will visit mission control for Russia's space agency and the country's leading space manufacturing plant outside Moscow before heading for St. Petersburg, Russia's former imperial capital.
Russian officials said Putin and Kim are expected to sign a joint declaration on world affairs, which presumably include their strong opposition to U.S. plans to build a missile defense system.
The Interfax news agency, quoting unidentified Russian sources, said the Putin-Kim meeting will cover Russian arms sales on favorable terms to DPRK.
Another possible summit agenda is Russia's hope to link its Trans-Siberian Railway with DPRK's rail system in a project that may eventually link South Korea directly to Europe.
As part of an agreement reached at the first-ever summit of their leaders in June last year, the two Koreas started work last year on reconnecting a cross-border railway that was severed just before the Korean War began in 1950.
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