A train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un passed into China early Tuesday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing the North’s state-run radio service.

It is a rare trip outside North Korea for Kim, who is one of 26 heads of state slated attend a military parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.

If it proceeds as planned, the diplomatic foray will mark the first time that Kim, Russia’s Vladmir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping appear at the same event.

On Monday, Xi and Putin took turns swiping at the West during a gathering of Eurasian leaders in Tianjin, just south of Beijing.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) touts itself as a non-Western style of collaboration between 10 countries in the region and seeks to be an alternative to traditional alliances.

Kim’s upcoming presence “formalises the China-Russia-North Korea trilateral (relationship) to the public”, Soo Kim, a geopolitical risk consultant and former CIA analyst, told AFP.

Kim enjoyed a brief bout of high-profile international diplomacy from around 2018, meeting US President Donald Trump and then South Korean President Moon Jae-in multiple times.

But he withdrew from the global scene after the collapse of a summit with Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2019.

Kim stayed in North Korea throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, but met Putin in Russia’s far east in 2023.

Woody Allen is a director many are familiar with, but there is someone he says he would like to work with again.

That’s the US President Donald Trump. The filmmaker directed him in the 1998 film Celebrity.

In his words, the former reality star is easy to direct, as he explains while appearing on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast.

“He was very polite and hit his mark and did everything correctly and had a real flair for show business,” the director shares.

His comments follow the host’s question about whether cancel culture has led him to support the current president. Woody previously faced the cancellation after he was accused of sexual abuse.

But the filmmaker denies this, saying, “I only wish I could direct him now. If he would let me direct him now that he’s president, I think I could do wonders,” adding, “But he was very easy to work with.”

To drive his point home, the veteran director even shares his political inclination, “I’m a Democrat. I voted for Kamala Harris. I take issue with him on 95% of things, maybe 99%.”

However, Woody in the end says, “But as an actor, he was very good. He was very convincing, and he had a charismatic quality as an actor. I’m surprised he wanted to go into politics.”

NEW YORK: Naomi Osaka produced a commanding performance to knock out third seed Coco Gauff 6-3 6-2 in a highly anticipated fourth round showdown between two former US Open champions on Monday.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka showed flashes of her old brilliance as she took control of the match from the start, while the 2023 champion Gauff struggled with her forehand and serve.

The result carried Osaka into the Flushing Meadows quarter-finals for the first time in five years and she will next play either Czech 11th seed Karolina Muchova or 27th seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.

Monday’s showdown marked the first time that the two fan favourites had met in New York since their memorable 2019 clash, when the then 15-year-old Gauff lost to Osaka.