Politics

17:31, 16.09.2008 | Russia

North Korea's top officials are to visit Russia later this year, a U.S. radio report said Sunday.

Quoting a Washington expert on North Korean affairs, the Washington-based broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that Choe Thae-bok, chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun will visit Russia as early as October.

"Russian Foreign Ministry's Vice-minister Alexander Yakovenko, who attended the North's 60th founding anniversary, was told so at the event," the report said.

There has been a recent flurry of speculation surrounding North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's health following his absence at the North's 60th founding anniversary military parade in Pyongyang on Tuesday.

Reports have surfaced that Western and Chinese doctors have flown into the communist state.

Meanwhile, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak is to visit Russia later this month to meet his counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev.

-Asia Pulse