Kim Meets Putin After Visiting Lenin's Tomb By REUTERS Filed at 5:11 a.m. ET MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin met North Korea's Kim Jong-il in Moscow on Saturday, with trade ties top of the declared agenda but Western eyes on Stalinist Pyongyang's ballistic missile ambitions. The ``Dear Leader'' visited the tomb of embalmed Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin before sweeping out of a cordoned-off Red Square in his Russian-made Zil limousine and heading for the Kremlin to meet Putin. Putin congratulated Kim on completing his nine-day train journey across Siberia to Moscow and said the visit would give a ``good boost'' to relations between Russia and North Korea, which the United States calls a dangerous ``rogue state.'' ``I have really looked forward to this day,'' Interfax news agency quoted Kim as saying. Both men lauded the development of relations between Pyongyang and Moscow since Putin's trip to North Korea last year. ``Since our meeting, relations between our countries have developed very positively,'' Itar-Tass news agency quoted Putin said. ``And the Moscow declaration which will be signed today is also a result of this year's work.'' Russian officials have not ruled out an arms deal being agreed over the weekend, but they have focused on the development of trade ties, which Moscow says can help foster stability on the Korean peninsula. ``ROGUE'' LEADER KIM VISITS LENIN The day began with an eerie echo of Russia's Communist days, as Kim's convoy of more than 15 black cars pulled into Red Square and Kim stepped up to the Lenin's red and black mausoleum. Beneath sharp-shooters stationed on the Kremlin towers, Kim laid a wreath at Lenin's tomb, with a band that said in Korean: ''Kim Jong-il -- V.I. Lenin.'' Kim entered the mausoleum for a few minutes before returning to his limousine and heading for talks with Putin. Kim arrived on Friday night in Moscow after a nine-day train ride across Siberia. He swapped his 21-carriage armored carriage for a suite in the Kremlin, where he slept in the suite occupied by his father Kim Il-sung in 1984. ``I now know Russia as well, perhaps better, than a few Russian politicians,'' Interfax quoted Kim as telling Putin of his train trip ``And I managed to get to know the nature and the feelings of the Russian people.'' Russia's efforts to court Kim send a strong signal to Washington that Moscow is not afraid to deal with countries on a U.S. list of ``rogue states.'' Kim's trips to arms and space-related factories will also do little to allay U.S. concerns about Pyongyang modernizing its Soviet-equipped armed forces, and its supply of ballistic missile know-how to nuclear threshold states. North Korea tops the list of states which Washington says could threaten it with missiles and which justify its plan to build a multi-billion dollar rocket shield. Russia says the plan would wreck three decades of arms control and start a costly new arms race. But during Kim's visit, Russian officials have played down the arms issue and emphasized their desire to involve North Korea in opening up gas and trade links to the booming economy of capitalist South Korea. One ambitious plan touted by Russia would open the Trans-Siberian Railway to Seoul's exports and Moscow is working on plans for a gas pipeline to China and South Korea, which could provide the North with energy and transport fees. Pyongyang's $1.7 billion dollar debt could also feature in talks, some in Moscow talking of a partial write-off and rescheduling deal designed to boost trade. On Sunday Kim is scheduled to visit Russia's mission control center and the Khrunichev space technology firm, both near Moscow, before heading for Russia's second city, St. Petersburg. ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby Rad-Green List: Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green ---- Leninist-International: Building bridges in the tradition of V.I. Lenin. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international ---- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht
