The Kremlin has confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has arrived in Russia and will meet with President Dmitry Medvedev.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency called the trip “unofficial,” and said Mr. Kim will visit Siberia and the Far Eastern region of the Russian Federation at the invitation of President Medvedev.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified government source as saying that Mr. Kim traveled to the area by train.

The Russian daily Izvestia quoted an official in the country's presidential office as saying the North Korean leader plans to meet with the Russian president at a military facility in the city of Ulan-Ude in east Siberia next week.

Mr. Kim last visited Russia in 2002 when he met with then President Vladimir Putin in the eastern city of Vladivostok.