North Korea’s Kim Jong Un arrives in Russia ahead of summit with Putin

Russian state television showed Kim stepping out of his green private train at a station in the eastern port city, Wednesday afternoon.

Kim and Putin are set to meet for the first time Thursday, but do not plan to sign any agreements or make a joint statement.

The meeting comes two months after a summit in Vietnam between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump ended in failure, leaving the North Korean leader looking elsewhere for international support and relief from sanctions.

The young North Korean leader left the capital of Pyongyang on Wednesday at dawn and traveled to Russia by train, as he did for his summit with US President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The journey from the train station in Khasan, near the North Korean border, to Vladivostok took about nine hours.

After crossing the Russian border, Kim stopped at the Khasan station where was presented with flowers as well as bread and salt -- a Russian tradition for welcoming guests -- local lawmaker Natalia Karpova told Russian state news agency TASS.

Kim said he was "happy to be on Russian soil," the Russian region of Primorsky reported on its official website.

Putin held a summit in 2002 with Kim Jong Un’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, who also met in 2011 with Dmitry Medvedev, the Putin lieutenant who was then Russian president.

The venue for the summit is a sports complex at the Far Eastern Federal University, which also played host in 2012 to an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

A State Department spokesperson said the United States is aware of the reports that Kim has left for Russia.

"The United States and the international community is committed to the same goal -- the final fully verified denuclearization of North Korea. It is Chairman Kim's commitment to denuclearization upon which the world is focused."