North Korean foreign minister to visit Russia

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Young-ho will visit Russia between April 9-11, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zaharova announced on Wednesday.

A meeting with the head of Russian diplomacy Sergey Lavrov is planned for April 10, Zaharova added, speaking in a news conference in Moscow.

"On April 9-11, the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] foreign minister will pay an official visit to Russia. On April 10 the heads of the foreign services will hold talks. They plan to discuss the current situation and prospects of bilateral relations, and exchange opinions on key international issues with an emphasis on resolving the situation on the Korean Peninsula,” she said.

Ri Young-ho will be visiting Russia for the first time in four years, his previous visit to Moscow being in 2014.

North and South Koreas have experienced a positive shift since the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang in Feb. 2018. The DPRK has considerably softened its warlike rhetoric and its leader Kim Jong Un has agreed to meetings with South Korean and U.S. presidents.

The first inter-Korean summit is scheduled for April 27 in the demilitarized zone between the two countries.