Kim Jong Un plans to send a special envoy to Russia, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday.

KCNA disclosed neither when Choe Ryong Hae (pictured), a top official of North Korea's Communist Party, would make the trip, nor the exact purpose behind the visit.

At a time when North Korea faces deepening diplomat isolation, the meeting is expected to focus on how to boost international ties.

Renewed relations

During the Soviet period, Russia and North Korea had a much closer relationship, with Moscow providing significant aid and support to Pyongyang.

Renewing the degenerated friendship could provide North Korea's troubled economy with a vital boost. The North's ties with China, its longtime ally and main aid provider, have worsened in recent years, with Beijing distancing itself from Pyongyang after it issued threats of nuclear strikes against South Korea and the United States, and last year carried out their third nuclear test.

Choe's trip could potentially strengthen Moscow's role in Asia. "Russia could be looking to increase its influence in the Far East as its relations with Western nations have taken a turn for the worse due to the situation in Ukraine," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University, told the news agency AP.

Friday's announcement came just days before an expected UN General Assembly vote on a resolution put forward by Japan and the European Union to denounce North Korea's human rights record.

The resolution came as a result of a comprehensive UN inquiry based on evidence from North Korean exiles, which detailed a vast network of prison camps and documented cases of torture, rape, murder and enslavement.

ksb/mkg (AFP, AP)