SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was heading home by train on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported, after a week-long visit to Russia that included talks with President Vladimir Putin on closer military and other cooperation.

A video published by Russia’s state-run RIA news agency on Sunday shows Mr Kim walking along a red carpet to his train carriage in the Russian Far Eastern city of Artyom, and waving goodbye amid the music of a military band.

Artyom is about 250km from Khasan station on Russia’s border with North Korea.

The United States and its allies worry about warming military ties between the two neighbours as Russia presses its invasion of Ukraine, and North Korea, a reclusive communist state, proceeds with missile and nuclear development.

South Korea and the US say military cooperation between North Korea and Russia would violate United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang and that the allies would ensure there was a price to pay.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called such a military partnership “illegal and unjust”, saying the international community would “unite more tightly” to cope with deepening ties between Moscow and Pyongyang, in written responses to the Associated Press on Sunday.

Mr Yoon will be heading to New York on Monday for the UN General Assembly.

Well-publicised visit

Russia has gone out of its way to publicise Mr Kim’s visit, dropping repeated hints about the prospect of military cooperation with North Korea, a country formed in 1948 with the backing of the Soviet Union.

On Saturday, Mr Kim met Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who showed the North Korean leader Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers, hypersonic missiles and warships.

Mr Kim and Mr Shoigu “exchanged their constructive opinions on the practical issues arising in further strengthening the strategic and tactical coordination, cooperation and mutual exchange between the armed forces of the two countries and in the fields of their national defence and security”, North Korean state news agency KCNA said on Sunday.

Moscow is discussing joint military exercises with North Korea, Mr Shoigu told Russian media. He visited Pyongyang in July and toured a weapons exhibition with Mr Kim, one of the most striking signs of deepening ties up to that point.

During his trip to Russia, Mr Kim toured Russia’s Pacific Sea Fleet, equipped with strategic nuclear submarines among other military vessels, KCNA said, quoting him as praising the fleet for its contribution to peace in the region. He was photographed visiting a control room and inspecting a warship.

In September, North Korea launched its first operational “tactical nuclear attack submarine”.

Mr Oleg Kozhemyako, governor of Russia’s Primorsky region, which borders China and North Korea, gave Mr Kim a bullet-proof vest and six drones produced in the region, RIA news agency said.

The official Tass news agency, referring to North Korea’s official name Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, said the “leader of the DPRK received five kamikaze drones and a ‘Geran-25’ reconnaissance drone with vertical take-off”.

Tass said Mr Kozhemyako also “offered Kim Jong Un a set of bulletproof protection” and “special clothing not detectable by thermal cameras”. REUTERS, AFP