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Kim Jong Il Returns Home After Russian Visit
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il returned home on August 18 after ending a 24-day train journey through Russia, Pyongyang announced.
"Kim Jong Il... returned home Saturday after successfully wrapping up his official visit to the Russian Federation," the ruling Workers' Party of Korea and the National Defense Commission said in a joint statement.
Kim left Russia at 8:50 am (2250 GMT Friday) via the Friendship bridge into North Korea after attending a reception given for him by the governor of the Primoria region in the far east, Sergei Darkin.
"Leaving your country, I'd like to express deep thanks to you for cordial hospitality accorded to us," Kim said in a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he held talks during the visit.
"Our recent meeting in the first year of the new century has provided a historic occasion of further developing the cooperative relations between the DPRK (North Korea) and Russia and ensuring peace and security in Asia and the rest of the world," said the message carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
"I am convinced that the traditional long-standing and close relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, which have continued generation after generation and century after century, will grow stronger and develop in the spirit agreed upon between the two sides."
The DPRK leader, 59, arrived in Russia on July 26 and covered more than 20,000 kilometres (12,000 miles) for his Russian trip.
He left Moscow on August 8 after talks with Putin to begin his return trip to Pyongyang.
Kim is general secretary of the Workers' Party, chairman of the powerful National Defence Commission.
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