Putin invites Kim Jong-un to visit Russia

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin invited Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, to travel to Russia in September, RIA news agency reported on Monday, citing Ivan Melnikov, a deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who visited Pyongyang last week, passed the DPRK leader an invitation from Putin to visit Russia during its Eastern Economic Forum, which is held in Vladivostok every year, Melnikov said.

Meanwhile, top diplomats of the Republic of Korea and the United States held a phone conversation on Monday over a summit between the DPRK and the US that got back on track over the weekend.

ROK Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha talked over the phone with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for about 15 minutes in the morning, according to Seoul's Foreign Ministry.

Kang and Pompeo exchanged opinions over the recent progress in the DPRK-US summit, including the visit by Kim Yongchol, vice-chairman of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee of the DPRK, to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump.

Trump said on Friday that he will meet Kim on June 12 in Singapore as originally scheduled.

The DPRK official, who held a two-day meeting with Pompeo in New York before heading to Washington, delivered the DPRK leader's personal letter to the US president.

The top diplomats of Seoul and Washington held an in-depth discussion on how to prepare for the DPRK-US summit successfully, agreeing to seek ways through close consultations to achieve a complete denuclearization and a lasting peace settlement on the Korean Peninsula.

An official of the ROK's presidential Blue House told local reporters that Seoul and Washington have been closely communicating over the DPRKUS summit.

Asked about whether a three-way summit in Singapore would be held between the ROK, the DPRK and the US after the summit on June 12, the official said Seoul had yet to launch preparations for such a meeting.

ROK President Moon Jae-in said recently that he anticipated the three-way summit would be held to declare an official end to the 1950-53 Korean War. The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war as the Korean War ended with an armistice.

After the April 27 inter-Korean summit, Moon and Kim agreed to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and turn the current armistice agreement to a peace treaty by the end of this year.

Reuters - Xinhua