Kim invites Putin to to visit North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to his country during their talks in Russia, state media reported on Thursday, with Kim expected to continue his trip with visits to military production facilities.Putin accepted the invitation, state news agency KCNA said, without mentioning when a visit might take place.Kim told Putin the meeting in Russia's Far East brought bilateral ties to a new level, and expressed his willingness to foster stable, future-oriented relations for the next 100 years, KCNA said.
"Putin accepted the invitation with pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward the history and tradition of the Russia-DPRK friendship," it said.On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said there was no plan for Putin to visit Pyongyang.The two leaders agreed to further strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation in the face of the "military threats, provocations and tyranny of imperialists," KCNA said.Kim was briefed on technical details of Russian space vehicles during his visit to the cosmodrome, but there was no mention of any arms supplies, trade of weapons or technical assistance over weapons programmes.
Meanwhile, U.S. and South Korean officials have expressed concern that Kim could provide weapons and ammunition to Russia, which has expended vast stocks in more than 18 months of war in Ukraine. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied such intentions.The U.S. State Department said the Biden administration "won't hesitate" to impose additional sanctions on Russia and North Korea if they conclude any new arms deals
It was "troubling" that Russia is talking about cooperation with North Korea on programs that potentially would violate U.N. Security Council resolution, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said after the summit.South Korea's unification minister, Kim Young-ho, who is in charge of relations with the North, expressed "deep concerns" over military cooperation and possible arms transactions between Pyongyang and Moscow, saying the two countries were apparently continuing to pursue "some kind of" a military deal