MOSCOW - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il toured a hydroelectric plant yesterday as his train traveled through Russia’s Far East on his first visit to the Cold War-era ally in nine years.
Kim crossed into Russia on his armored train Saturday at the invitation of President Dmitry Medvedev, with the two leaders expected to meet later in the week to discuss the restart of nuclear disarmament talks and the construction of a pipeline that would carry Russian natural gas to North and South Korea.
The train stopped in the Russian border city of Khasan, where Kim was greeted, apparently on board, by senior Russian officials, including Viktor Ishayev, presidential envoy to the Far East region of Russia, according to Russian and North Korean state news agencies.
Kim’s train then continued its secretive journey west along the Trans-Siberian Railway, stopping briefly early yesterday at the Khabarovsk railway station.
Television footage showed policemen with dogs checking the rails and blocking access to the platform as the train arrived.
Kim was first seen later yesterday, when he left his train in the small Bureya railway station in Amur Province, where he was welcomed by officials and by two women in traditional red Russian costumes offering him bread and salt.
During the stop, he toured a hydroelectric power plant and its 456-foot dam on the Bureya River.
A regional news agency, PortAmur, posted some of the only photographs of Kim’s visit, during which he signed a guest book and watched a film about the power plant, where construction was completed in 2009.
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