By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press
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SEOUL, South Korea — Joined by his top military officials handling his nuclear-capable weapons and munitions factories, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia on Tuesday, where he is expected to hold a rare meeting with President Vladimir Putin that has sparked Western concerns about a potential arms deal for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

North Korea’s official news agency said Kim boarded his personal train from the capital, Pyongyang, on Sunday afternoon, and that he was accompanied by unspecified members of the country’s ruling party, government and military.

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Jeon Ha Gyu, spokesperson of South Korea’s Defense Ministry, said in a briefing that the South’s military assesses that Kim’s train crossed into Russia sometime early Tuesday. He didn’t elaborate how the military obtained the information.

North Korean state media showed photographs of Kim walking past honor guards and crowds of civilians holding the national flag and flowers, and also of him waving from his green-and-yellow armored train before it left the station. Kim’s delegation likely includes his foreign minister, Choe Sun Hui, and his top military officials, including Korean People’s Army Marshals Ri Pyong Chol and Pak Jong Chon.

A group of senior officials were at the station to give the leader a “hearty send-off,” according to the Korean Central News Agency, which did not specify whether the train had crossed the border. Citing unidentified Russian regional officials, Japanese broadcaster TBS reported that Kim’s train crossed the border and arrived in the border town of Khasan.

A brief statement on the Kremlin’s website on Monday said the visit is at Putin’s invitation and would take place “in the coming days.” KCNA said the leaders would meet — without specifying when and where.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin and Kim will lead their delegations in talks and could also meet “one-on-one if necessary.” He added that Putin will host an official dinner for Kim.

The talks will focus on bilateral ties, Peskov said. “As with any of our neighbors, we feel obliged to develop good, mutually beneficial relations,” he added.

A possible venue is the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, where Putin arrived Monday to attend an international forum that runs through Wednesday, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. The city, located about 425 miles (680 kilometers) north of Pyongyang, was also the site of Putin’s first meeting with Kim in 2019.

The visit would be Kim’s first foreign trip since the COVID-19 pandemic, which had forced North Korea to enforce tight border controls for more than three years to shield its poor health care system.

While Kim has shown to be more comfortable using planes than his famously flight-adverse father, he has also used his personal train for previous meetings with Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and former U.S. President Donald Trump, reviving a symbol of his family’s dynastic rule.

Associated Press journalists near the North Korea-Russia frontier saw a green train with yellow trim — similar to one used by the reclusive Kim during previous foreign trips — at a station on the North Korean side of a border river.

The train was seen moving back and forth between the station and the approach to the bridge that connects the countries, but ithad not crossed the bridge as of 7 p.m. local time (1000 GMT).

Citing unidentified South Korean government sources, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that a Kim-Putin meeting is possible as early as Tuesday.

The Yonhap news agency and some other media published similar reports. South Korea’s Presidential Office, Defense Ministry and National Intelligence Service didn’t immediately confirm those details.

U.S. officials released intelligence last week that North Korea and Russia were arranging a meeting between their leaders as they expand their cooperation in the face of deepening confrontations with the United States.

According to U.S. officials, Putin could focus on securing more supplies of North Korean artillery and other ammunition to refill declining reserves as he seeks to defuse a Ukrainian counteroffensive and show that he’s capable of grinding out a long war of attrition.

That could potentially put more pressure on the U.S. and its partners to pursue negotiations as concerns over a protracted conflict grow despite their huge shipments of advanced weaponry to Ukraine in the past 17 months.