Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un had talks with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of the Russian Federation, on April 25.

Present at the talks from the DPRK side were Ri Yong Ho, foreign minister, and Choe Son Hui, first vice-foreign minister, and from the Russian side were Sergei Lavrov, foreign minister, Yuri Trutnev, deputy prime minister and presidential envoy to the Far East Federal Region, Dmitri Peskov, deputy head of the Presidential Administration and president’s press secretary, Yuri Ushakov, assistant to the president’s foreign policy, Yevgeni Ditrih, minister of Railways, Alexandr Kozlov, minister of Development of the Far East and Arctic, Anatoli Yanovski, vice-minister of Energy, Oleg Belozerov, president of the Russian Railways Company, and Alexandr Matsegora, Russian ambassador to the DPRK.

At the talks, President Putin expressed deep thanks to Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un once again for accepting his invitation and visiting Russia, and stated the firm stand and will of the Russian government to carry forward and develop the history and tradition of the Russia-DPRK friendship.

Kim Jong Un said he was very pleased to visit Russia, the friendly neighboring country, at the invitation of President Putin and that the meeting came to be an especially important occasion in reaffirming the invariable trend of the history of the DPRK-Russia relations and further developing the friendly relations between the two countries in a more solid and progressive way.

Saying it is a due responsibility before the times and history to put the DPRK-Russia relations on a new high stage as required by the new century, he expressed his determination to usher in a new heyday of the DPRK-Russia relations true to the intention of the preceding leaders.

Made at the talks was a discussion on further expanding and developing the bilateral co-operation in various fields.

The top leaders of the two countries had a discussion on boosting high-level visits including top-level meeting and contact and developing co-operation, exchange and collaboration between the governments, parliaments, regions and organizations of the two countries in various forms.

Both sides agreed to take positive measures in several fields in order to further energize the work of the DPRK-Russia Intergovernmental Committee for Co-operation in Trade, Economy, Science and Technology and put the equally beneficial economic and trade relations between the two countries on a higher stage.

They analyzed and assessed the trend of the situation on the Korean peninsula that has faced a crucial moment and had an in-depth discussion on the ways for the two countries to promote the strategic communication and tactical collaboration in the course of ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in the region.

Kim Jong Un said that the situation on the Korean peninsula and the region is now at a standstill and has reached a critical point where it may return to its original state as the U.S. took a unilateral attitude in bad faith at the recent second DPRK-U.S. summit talks, and added that peace and security on the Korean peninsula will entirely depend on the U.S. future attitude, and the DPRK will gird itself for every possible situation.

At the talks both sides agreed to more closely promote mutual understanding and bonds and boost strategic collaboration for ensuring regional peace and security in the future.

Kim Jong Un invited Putin to visit the DPRK at a convenient time and the invitation was readily accepted.