Kim’s trip excites Vladivostok
Print Edition
WAITRESSES at the North Korean restaurant in Vladivostok have broad smiles, with national dish kimchi and delicacies such as shark fin soup on the menu, along with socialist realist paintings on the walls.
The restaurant is just one sign of the port city’s ties with its Asian neighbor. Here diners can read Russian-language booklets packed with the leader’s thoughts on creating a “rich and powerful homeland.”
These ties made Vladivostok, just 200 kilometers from the border with DPRK, the natural choice for Kim and Putin’s first meeting. Kim followed the same route from the border in his armored train as his father and grandfather.
Vladivostok residents were more enthusiastic. They expressed excitement at the high-profile visit and a sense of fellowship with DPRK.
Nadezhda, a 61-year-old lawyer, took her 5-year-old grandson to watch Kim’s arrival at the city’s art nouveau train station. She talked with nostalgia of going to school with Koreans on the far eastern Russian island of Sakhalin.
“We really love Koreans, we respect and love them.”
While the city welcomed Kim, visitors from South Korea were far more in evidence.
In her cozy shop selling Russian crafts, 61-year-old Nina Guminyuk said large numbers of South Koreans began arriving several years ago and were snapping up matryoshka dolls and brightly colored pottery.
But North Koreans are rare visitors to her store, she said, only coming as part of official delegations to the nearby regional administration.
“It’s rare, maybe two or three times a year,” she estimated.
For some South Koreans, Kim’s visit was a draw and many came to the rail station to catch a glimpse of him.
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