North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is expected to pay a visit to Russia and meet President Dmitry Medvedev in Russia's Far East city of Vladivostok, South Korean Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday, although Russia's foreign minister denied knowledge of such a meeting.
This would become Kim's second visit to Russia since 2002, when he met with current Prime Minister and then president Vladimir Putin.
The sides are expected to discuss economic cooperation and security.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday he had no information about a possible meeting between Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev and Kim Jong-il.
The North Korean nuclear issue also remains a hot topic between the two nations. Russia is a member of the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions which came to a halt in April 2009 when North Korea walked out of negotiations to protest the United Nations' condemnation of its ballistic missile tests.
North Korea is banned from conducting nuclear or ballistic missile tests under UN Resolution 1718, adopted after Pyongyang's first nuclear test on October 9, 2006.
However, the country carried out a second nuclear test on May 25, 2009, followed by a series of short-range missile launches, and has threatened to build up its nuclear arsenal to counter what it calls hostile U.S. policies.
