North Korea's Kim set to meet Putin "in second half of April"April 23, 2019 - 10:55 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - North Korean state media has confirmed that Kim-Jong-un will travel to Russia soon for his first ever meeting with President Vladimir Putin, the BBC reports. While no specific date has been officially announced, the Kremlin has also said the two will meet "in the second half of April". Any meeting between the old allies will come at a crucial time for North Korea, after the collapse of February's talks with the US in Hanoi. But both sides will be bringing different agendas to the talks, expected to take place in Russia's eastern city of Vladivostok. The last North Korea-Russia bilateral meeting was in 2011, when then President Dmitry Medvedev met Mr Kim's father, Kim Jong-il. According to Russia's foreign ministry, there are also some 8,000 North Korean migrant labourers working in Russia, sending vital revenues back home. Other estimates put that number much higher. Under the current UN sanctions, all of these workers will have to be sent home by the end of the year. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |