The first North Korea-Russia summit in 8 years is being held later today in Vladivostok.
The main focus for today's talks? Trying to find a diplomatic solution that could lead to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
For more, let's connect to our Lee Ji-won who is on the phone for us.
Ji-won, what do you have for us?
Mark. So like you said, the Kim-Putin summit will be held at around 1 to 2 p.m. today at the Far Eastern Federal University, located on Russky Island, just off the coast of Vladivostok.
Now, that's also where the North Korean leader stayed overnight after arriving in the city on Wednesday afternoon.
So, their meeting will start with a one-on-one sitdown, followed by an expanded talk between the respective delegations,... which will not result in the leaders signing any agreements or making a joint statement, according to Russia's presidential aide ( )Yuri Ushakov.
The last thing scheduled for the day is expected to be a joint lunch,... before Putin leaves for China's "One Belt One Road" initiative forum possibly later in the day.
So Ji-won, what are we expecting from today's talk?
Well Mark, according to Ushakov, the focus of today's talk will be on finding a diplomatic solution to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
But like you said,... this is the first Pyeongyang-Moscow summit in 8 years,... the last one being in 2011 with Kim's late father and the former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il meeting with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
So the leaders are likely to talk about their bilateral issues, especially economic ties,... seeing how there are several transportation and economic officials in the Russian delegation, as revealed by TASS News Agency.
And as much as the summit is seen as Kim Jong-un's effort to seek support from Russia after his summit with President Trump collapsed in Hanoi, the two leaders are also likely to discuss the need to ease UN sanctions against the North.
Back to you Mark.
