Vladimir Putin will receive Kim Jong-un in Russia at the end of April

The North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un will visit Russia in late April for a bilateral meeting with the president Vladimir Poutinethe Russian authorities said Thursday.

"On the invitation of Vladimir Putin (…) Kim Jong-un will visit Russia for a visit during the second half of Aprilhe simply informed the Kremlin in a statement.

It is speculated that the appointment could be made in Vladivostok, located in the extreme south-east of Russia and less than 200 kilometers from the North Korean border.

Kim's aversion to air travel makes it difficult to hold the meeting in Moscow, more than 6,000 kilometers from Pyongyang.

The Russian newspaper Izvestia, quoting diplomatic sources, reported Wednesday that the meeting would take place before Putin goes to China on April 26 and 27 for an economic summit. The Kremlin seeks to maintain an active role and not to remain on the sidelines of the White House's negotiations for the denuclearization of the peninsula.

According to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, North Korea could reprocess radioactive materials for war purposes since the failure of the February summit.

Last week, an American senator asked Pompeo, who went to Pyongyang four times in 2018, if the term "tyrant" was applied to Kim. "Of course, I'm sure to have already said," replied Pompeo. Any personal criticism of Kim Jong Un is very bad in a country where the Kim Dynasty is the object of an absolute person worship.

(With information from AFP)