On 26 November 2018, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, met with Mr. Kim Yong-dae, vice-president of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and with Mr. Im Chon-il, deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK. Taking part in the meetings with the Korean statesmen were Archbishop Sergy of Solnechnogorsk, administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate’s parishes in East and Southeast Asia; Mr. Alexander Matsegora, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the DPRK; Mr. Nikita Chaplin, first deputy chairman of the Moscow Region Duma; Mr. Dmitry Petrovsky, DECR staff member; and Mr. Vladislav Sorokin, attaché of the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang.
That same day Metropolitan Hilarion, accompanied by his subdeacon Vyacheslav Lee, departed for Moscow. Among those who saw off the DECR chairman at the Sunan Airport in Pyongyang were Mr. Vitaly Kim Ji Son, chairman of the DPRK Orthodox Committee; Archbishop Sergy of Solnechnogorsk; Mr. Alexander Matsegora, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the DPRK; Rev. Theodor Kim of the Holy Trinity Church in Pyongyang; Mr. Dmitry Petrovsky, DECR staff member; the Russian diplomats and clerics of the Pyonyang church.
