North Korean Leader Kim Headed to Russia in Armored Train for Putin Weapons Summit

An armored train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is headed to Russia for a high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Both Moscow and Pyongyang confirmed Monday that Kim will visit Russia. in a highly anticipated meeting with Putin that could end in a critical arms deal to fuel Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

A brief statement on the Kremlin website said Kim was traveling to Vladivostok at Putin's invitation. North Korea’s official KCNA news agency also confirmed the visit.

The summit will involve “negotiations between delegations and, if necessary, a one-on-one meeting,” between the leaders, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

Associated Press journalists near the North Korean-Russia border spotted a green train with yellow trim — similar to the train used by Kim Jong Un during his previous foreign trips — on a station at the North Korean side of a border river.

"The intelligence authorities believe the train presumed to be carrying Kim Jong-un is moving to Vladivostok," on Russia’s Pacific coast, a South Korean intelligence official told Yonhap News.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported the train likely left Pyongyang on Sunday evening—and that the two leaders could meet on Tuesday.

Kim’s train is said to include 20 bulletproof cars, making it so heavy that it can only reach a top speed of 37mph. Putin arrived in Vladivostok on Monday to attend an international forum,  Russia's TASS news agency reported. 

American officials said last week that a Kim-Putin summit would expand cooperation as the two leaders contend with Western opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and to North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Washington is worried that Putin will strike a deal with Kim to receive North Korean artillery and other ammunition to replace his dwindling stocks as the U.S. struggles to keep Ukraine supplied with war material.

North Korea may have tens of millions of artillery shells and rockets based on Soviet designs that would work with Russian systems.

For his part, Kim needs energy and food aid — and Moscow’s and advanced weapons technologies, analysts say.

Deputy U.S. national security adviser Jon Finer told reporters Sunday that sourcing arms from North Korea "may be the best and may be the only option" available for Putin as Russia works to blunt a Ukrainian counteroffensive. 

"We have serious concerns about the prospect of North Korea potentially selling weapons, additional weapons, to the Russian military,” Finer said aboard a plane carrying Biden from India to Vietnam. 

“It is interesting to reflect for a minute on what it says that when Russia goes around the world looking for partners that can help it, it lands on North Korea.”