South Korea seeks to resume economic projects with North Korea, Russia By Kim Rahn

Song Young-gil, chairman of the Presidential Committee on Northern Economic Cooperation, speaks during a meeting to announce a roadmap for joint economic projects with North Korea, Russia and China, at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap

Moon to meet Putin at critical time
The government will seek joint economic projects with Pyongyang, Moscow and Beijing to develop special economic zones in border towns of North Korea, Russia and China, a presidential committee said Monday.

It plans to link railways, gas pipelines and the electricity grid between South Korea and Russia, and China, and promote joint studies on how to link the sections passing through North Korea.

These will closely depend on the North’s denuclearization process and the lifting of related international economic sanctions on Pyongyang.

The Presidential Committee on Northern Economic Cooperation announced the roadmap of President Moon Jae-in’s New Northern Policy and introduced such economic projects with countries north of South Korea.

The plan was announced three days before Moon’s state visit to Russia and summit with President Vladimir Putin.

“The situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula is changing after the inter-Korean and Washington-Pyongyang summits,” committee Chairman Song Young-gil said.

“If sanctions on North Korea are relieved in line with its denuclearization process, transnational economic cooperation involving the two Koreas, Russia and China will become possible in areas including logistics, energy and special economic zone development.”

Under the roadmap, Seoul will seek more economic projects with the countries, which are expected to help stabilize inter-Korean cooperation and build a foundation for peace in Northeast Asia.

It will encourage the neighboring countries to link their own development projects in the border regions with each other, such as the Rajin-Khassan logistics partnership. “If denuclearization makes progress, the countries may be able to develop cruise tour programs using North Korean ports or set up a tourism zone along the Tumen River,” Song said.

Expanding logistics and energy networks with the northern countries are also planned.

South Korea will seek cooperation with the Russian and Chinese governments to help companies better utilize the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) and Trans-China Railway (TCR).

To prepare for the possibility that inter-Korean railways are connected and linked to the TSR and TCR, Seoul will refurbish the abandoned railway section between Gangneung Station and Jejin Station, the northernmost station on the railway along the east coast.

It will also seek to link electrical grid and gas pipelines of the two Koreas and Russia, and pursue joint studies among the countries over economic and technical feasibility of developing North Korea sections.

But a presidential aide made it clear that economic cooperation with North Korea would be possible only when the North achieve denuclearization to an extent approved of by the international community. “The three-way cooperation involving the two Koreas and Russia is in the preparation stage for the future when economic projects will be allowed,” a Cheong Wa Dae official said on condition of anonymity..

Moon will discuss such cooperative projects with Putin during his four-day state visit to the country from Thursday to Sunday.

It will be his second trip to the country but first to Moscow: He earlier participated in the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September.

Moon and Putin will talk about the North Korea nuclear issue, which is progressing fast following the two inter-Korean and the Washington-Pyongyang summits. Putin invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to this year’s forum for a summit. If Kim accepts the invitation and Moon is also invited, the leaders of the two Koreas may have their third meeting there.

During the visit, Moon will deliver a speech at the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, the first South Korean president to do so. He will also cheer for the Korean national football team in its World Cup match against Mexico.

Source:koreatimes.co.kr