Vostochny Cosmodrome: the remote Russian spaceport hosting Kim and Putin
President Vladimir Putin has met North Korea’s Kim Jong-un at Russia’s most modern space rocket launch site, set amongst the forests of eastern Russia.
The Vostochny Cosmodrome came into service in 2016 and is located in the Amur region of Russia’s Far East, not far from the Russian border with China and about 1,500km (930 miles) from the port of Vladivostok.
Putin ordered the construction of the cosmodrome to reduce reliance on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which gained independence after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
There was once a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) base known as Svobodny 18 just a few kilometres from the Vostochny complex. That base shut down in 1993.
Meeting Kim – who was cast by former US president Donald Trump as the “rocket man” - at Vostochny puts a spotlight on western concerns about the development of North Korea’s missile capabilities.
North Korea’s latest Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile – its first ICBM to use solid rocket fuel – has reignited debate over possible Russian links to the nuclear-armed state’s dramatic missile development.
Vostochny cost billions of dollars to build, giving a boost to the local economy, but construction was mired by repeated delays and several corruption scandals.
The first launch there was in 2016, when a Soyuz-2 rocket blasted off. The most recent launch was a Soyuz rocket carrying the ill-fated Luna-25 moon spacecraft, which crashed into the moon.