The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, will visit Russia in late April for his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, Moscow has said.

“Following an invitation from Vladimir Putin ... Kim Jong-un will visit Russia in the second half of April,” said the Kremlin in a statement on its website on Thursday.

The announcement comes after North Korea said it had tested a new tactical weapon with a “powerful warhead”, as denuclearisation talks with Washington appear to have stalled.

The Kremlin did not provide details of the exact date or location of the meeting but Russian, South Korean and Japanese media said it would be in Russia’s far east.

Putin has long expressed his readiness to meet the North Korean leader.

Putin’s press spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that Fiona Hill, an adviser to Donald Trump, had been in Moscow for talks with her Russian counterpart, Yuri Ushakov.

Trump’s North Korea envoy, Stephen Biegun, was also in Moscow, the state department said.

A Pyongyang official, meanwhile, was seen inspecting a train station in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, near Russia’s border with North Korea, Russian state media reported.

Russia has relatively warm ties with the reclusive regime and provides some food aid.

The last summit between a Russian and North Korean head of state came in 2011 when Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, travelled to Siberia to meet Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s then president.

Kim Jong-il, who died shortly after the visit, told Medvedev his state was prepared to renounce nuclear testing.