North Korea, Russia officials to meet in Moscow

May 20 (UPI) -- North Korea Workers' Party officials are to meet with their Russian counterparts in Moscow later this month, according to Russian media.

The meeting is being planned as North Korean official Ri Su Yong travels to Cuba with a North Korean delegation, KCNA reported.

Tass reported Monday Andrei Klimov, the deputy head of the Russian Federation Council's Foreign Affairs Committee, confirmed the North Koreans are meeting with politicians of United Russia, the ruling political party.

Klimov said in Vladivostok on Monday the Russians have "already" come to an agreement to meet with the leaders of Pyongyang's Korean Workers' Party.

The meeting is expected to take place at the end of May. Klimov said he hopes peace and security on the Korean Peninsula can be established through regular contact with North Korea.

The Russian government official said other plans to meet with Pyongyang's bureaucrats are all part of normal contact, according to Tass.

The Russian news service also reported Russian Minister for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Alexander Kozlov will visit North Korea, on June 6-8.

The working-level talks are being confirmed following Kim Jong Un's first summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in April.

The two sides had agreed to discuss the construction of a bridge between the two countries across the Tumen River, according to South Korean news service Newsis.

Ri Su Yong, the vice chair of the Workers' Party's foreign affairs committee is traveling to Cuba, following meetings in 2018 when the two countries agreed to maintain "close ties."

In November, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel visited North Korea during his first trip overseas.

KCNA reported Ri and a North Korean delegation left Pyongyang on Monday.