N. Korea’s special envoy likely to meet Putin

A special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un left Pyongyang on Monday for a trip to Russia. Choe Ryong Hae, a high-ranking member of the ruling Workers` Party, and Russian President Vladimir Putin are likely to meet on Tuesday and the summit between the two countries is expected to be discussed.

Associated Press Television News or APTN aired that Choe was sent off at Sunan Airport in Pyongyang on Monday. He was accompanied by Kim Kye Gwan, first vice minister of foreign affairs, Ri Kwang Gun, vice economy minister, and No Kwang Chol, deputy chief of the general staff of the North`s military. Choe and his aides will visit Moscow until Saturday and travel to the far eastern cities of Khabarovsk and Vladivostok before ending his trip November 24.

A source from the South Korean government said, “Given that Choi Ryong Hae is a special envoy with Kim Jong Un’s personal letter, he is expected to meet with President Putin during lunch or dinner on Tuesday.” The fact that Kim Kye Kwan who has been North Korea’s chief negotiator for the six-party talks is also on the trip indicates that North Korea’s nuclear issue could be a main agenda for the visit.

If President Putin and Choe have a smooth meeting, North Korea and Russia might have a summit at the end of the year or in the beginning of next year.

If the summit is held, Kim Jong Un would highly likely visit Russia. However, just as President Putin visited Kim Jong Il in North Korea in 2000, he could visit Pyongyang again. Either way, the North Korea-Russia summit would precede the North Korea-China summit.

“Beijing would make it (a summit) possible only if Kim Jong Un makes it clear that North Korea intends to denuclearize itself,” Jeong Seong-jang, a senior research fellow of the Sejong Institute, who met key members of the state-run thinktank in China in September, said. “Some say that Pyongyang has already delivered the message that unless Beijing responds by this summer, it would have a summit with Russia first."