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MOSCOW – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reportedly arrived Wednesday in remote eastern Siberia for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il expected to focus on energy deals, economic aid and nuclear disarmament.
Kim has been rolling across eastern Russia aboard his special armored train in a trip that began Saturday. It is his first visit to North Korea's Cold War ally since 2002. His train arrived Tuesday in Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia, a Buddhist province near Lake Baikal.
Medvedev arrived Wednesday morning at an army base on the outskirts of Ulan-Ude for a meeting with Kim later in the day, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing unidentified sources in Ulan-Ude. Kim, however, had yet to show up at the meeting venue, Yonhap said.
The leaders plan to discuss Moscow's proposal to build a pipeline through the North's territory that would allow Russia to stream natural gas to South Korea, Yonhap and other South Korean media have reported. North Korea, long reluctant, has recently shown interest in the project, South Korea officials said. Seoul has expressed hope that negotiations on the project will make progress.
Another energy project long under discussion would involve the extension of power lines to make it possible for Russia to sell electricity from plants like the Bureya hydroelectric plant that Kim visited at the start of his trip.
How to resume long-stalled six-nation talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear weapons program in return for aid is another likely topic at the summit. North Korea has expressed its willingness to restart the talks. The Korean peninsula has seen more than a year of tension during which the North shelled a South Korean island and allegedly torpedoed a South Korean warship.
North Korea is pushing for outside aid ahead of an important national anniversary next year. Kim has promised his 24 million people that he will build a "powerful, prosperous" nation to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of his father and North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung, South Korean officials said.
Last month, North Korean diplomats separately met U.S. and South Korean officials to discuss the resumption of the talks, which have been stalled for more than two years. The negotiations involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.
The itinerary for Kim's visit, expected to last about a week, has been largely kept secret because of worries about security from North Korea. A few people managed to take photos of Kim during his visit to the hydroelectric plant on Sunday, but heavy police cordons kept the media and onlookers in Ulan-Ude away from the train station and the adjacent square.
On Tuesday, Kim's motorcade headed for a picturesque village on the shores of Baikal, a huge freshwater lake.
Kim took a two-hour Baikal tour on a yacht guarded by two North Korean boats, the Inform Polis Online website reported, quoting eyewitness accounts. The water in Baikal is ice-cold even in summertime, so Kim decided to take a swim onshore, in a pool filled with Baikal water. The speaker of Buryatia's legislature joined Kim in the swim, the news website reported.
On shore, the North Korean leader was treated to traditional Buryat food, including meat dumplings and Baikal fish prepared over an open fire.
Later Tuesday, Kim went back to Ulan-Ude to visit a major aircraft factory, which among other things produces Sukhoi attack planes, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported from the plant.
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Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea.
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