Russian senate speaker meeting with North Korean leader in Pyongyang

Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Chairperson Valentina Matviyenko is holding a meeting with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, Chairman of the Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev said on Saturday.

"She (Matviyenko) is currently meeting Chairman as scheduled," he said.

Earlier Matviyenko said that she would convey Russian President Vladimir Putin’s letter to Kim Jong-un.

The delegation of Russia’s upper house of parliament that arrived in North Korea late on Friday for celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of North Korea’s founding, held meetings with North Korean Supreme People's Assembly Chairman Choe Thae-bok and President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly Kim Yong Nam earlier on Saturday. According to Kosachev, the North Korean side emphasized at those meetings that Pyongyang is ready to move towards settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue through "political solutions on a mutually acceptable balanced basis".