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PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA - NOV. 17: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's special envoy left from Pyongyang for his weeklong trip to Russia to seek ways to boost bilateral cooperation on Monday, November 17. Choe Ryong Hae, one of the leader's closest aides, is accompanied by Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea's first vice foreign minister and its point man on nuclear issues. After visiting Moscow, Choe, a secretary of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, is scheduled to travel to the Russian Far East cities of Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, Russia's Foreign Ministry said last week. In Moscow, Choe is likely to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. His trip through next Monday comes as North Korea's relations with China, its most important political and economic benefactor, have soured, especially since Pyongyang pushed ahead with its third nuclear test in February 2013 in defiance of warnings from the international community. While senior officials from North Korea and Russia have been in active contact in recent months, speculation is rife that Kim may pick Russia, and not China, as the destination for his first overseas trip since inheriting power from his father Kim Jong Il, who died in December 2011.