Russia's
Vladimir Putin has invited
North Korea's dictator
Kim Jong-un to visit his country, despite having no plans to meet US President Donald Trump amid simmering tensions between Moscow and Washington.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Kim was invited to take part in an economic forum held in the far eastern city of Vladivostok in September.
The Kremlin's invitation comes days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited North Korea.
Earlier this year, Donald Trump said he planned to meet Vladimir Putin very soon.
However relations between the US and Russia remain strained over the ongoing conflict in Syria and the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal on British soil.
Last week, Mr Trump confirmed that the historic summit with the North Korean leader that the US pulled out of last week would go ahead as planned in Singapore on June 12.
The historic meeting between Mr Trump and Kim would be the first between sitting US and North Korean leaders.
Gen Kim Yong-chol, a close aide of the North Korean leader, hand-delivered a letter from Kim to the US President.
He became the highest level figure from North Korea to hold talks at the White House since a senior envoy visited former US President Bill Clinton in 2000.
Mr Trump said it was “a very interesting letter and at some point may be appropriate” to share it, although he later revealed he had not read it yet.
Gen Kim Yong-chol's visit came a day after he met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York, who described their talks of denuclearisation as "substantive".
President Trump has wanted the meeting to pressure Pyongyang into giving up its nuclear weapons in return for relief from economic sanctions.
But he warned that he expected a number of summits would be needed to iron out all outstanding issues.
Progress was being made between the nations and a summit had been penciled in for June 12 in Singapore.
But last Thursday, Mr Trump sensationally cancelled the historic meeting, citing North Korea’s “tremendous anger and open hostility” and apparently dashing any hope of a truce between the US and South Korea.
Since then, meetings have been taking place between the two sides since then in the hope of reviving the summit, with positive noises coming out from both.