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.