Reports: N. Korean leader cancels trip to Russia

North Korea and Russia have apparently scrapped a plan to hold talks between their leaders this week in Russia’s Far Eastern region of Vladivostok, media reports said Wednesday.

The two sides had previously arranged a summit between Kim Jong-Il and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Vladivostok on June 30 or July 1, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

“It’s my understanding that they have scrapped a plan to hold the summit,” a senior South Korean government source told Yonhap.

The news agency quoted an intelligence source in Moscow as saying the two sides might have ditched the plan because they failed to narrow differences over the agenda.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency quoted sources as saying that among the reasons given by Pyongyang was that Kim’s health was not in the best state.

Japanese and Russian media had reported earlier that Kim would likely visit Vladivostok aboard his special train for talks with Medvedev.

Medvedev is scheduled to travel to the city to chair a conference on preparations for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012, Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency said.

Kim last visited Russia in 2002, when he met then-president Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok.