New Delhi: North Korean President Kim Jong Un will be travelling to Russia for his maiden meeting with Vladimir Putin in the later part of April, international news agencies reported quoting Kremlin.

"Following an invitation from Vladimir Putin... Kim Jong Un will visit Russia in the second half of April," the Kremlin said in a statement on its website.

Speculations were on about Kim’s probable visit to a long-time ally after he failed to get sanctions relief as his last nuclear talks with US President Donald in February ended abruptly.

As per agencies, the Kremlin did not give a specified date or location of the purported meeting, but there have been reports that it could take place in the last week of April.

This will be Kim Jong’s first ever visit to Russia, since he took power in the year 2011. In a recent speech by Kim he said he would give the United States time till the end of this year to come up with new proposals for future talks.

Kim has called for an end to the US imposed sanctions to punish North Korea over its nuclearisation programmes. Russia which is a vteo weildiong member of the UNSC has oft supported the reduction of sanctions on the DPRK. The US has expressed apprehensions at allowing the projects that have been blocked at the present by sanctions, such as energy pipeline from Russia and a regular train service across their shared border, until and unless Pyongyang agrees over denuclearization and to reduce its security threat.