N. Korea's envoy likely to meet Putin next week: Seoul sources

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's special envoy set to fly to Russia is likely to meet the European country's president next week to discuss diverse bilateral pending issues, sources in Seoul said Sunday.

Choe Ryong-hae, the senior secretary of the Workers' Party of (North) Korea, will embark on a eight-day trip to Russia on Monday, according to the Moscow's foreign ministry.

The planned visit by Kim Jong-un's close aide came as the communist country has launched vigorous diplomatic campaigns in recent months to shun the United Nations' resolution that called to refer Kim to the International Criminal Court for his grave human rights violation.

"Choe would meet Vladimir Putin on Tuesday as a special envoy to its leader Kim," a diplomatic source in Seoul said, requesting anonymity. "He is seen delivering Kim's letter to Putin and to discuss diverse issues on security and the economy."

Some watchers say the two sides would also discuss a possibility of holding a summit meeting between Kim and Putin.  

With details of Choe's itinerary not available, he is expected to stay in Moscow until Friday to meet figures there and fly to Russia's far eastern cities of Khabarovsk and Vladivostok before returning home, according to Seoul sources.

Choe met Chinese President Xi Jinping last year as Kim's envoy and made a surprise trip to South Korea in October along with two high-level North Korean officers.

His upcoming trip to Moscow comes as a U.N. committee plans to vote on a strongly-worded resolution against Pyongyang for its poor human rights record. A draft resolution calls for the referral of the young leader to the ICC for crimes against humanity.

Speculation has grown that North Korea's ties with China are not like before and Pyongyang has instead sought to improve political and economic ties with Moscow.

(Yonhap)