MOSCOW (AP) – The reclusive leader of North Korea will not be coming to Moscow next month for the Victory Day celebration, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman announced Thursday.
The highly anticipated visit would have been Kim Jong Un’s first foreign trip since taking power more than three years ago.
The Russian foreign minister had said in March that Kim was among 26 world leaders who had accepted invitations to take part in the May 9 celebration of the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
North Korea, however, had never confirmed that Kim planned to come.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told The Associated Press “internal matters” were preventing Kim from leaving North Korea. He did not elaborate.