MOSCOW -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoy has told the Russian Far East development minister and parliament leaders that South Korea intends to increase economic cooperation with Russia as a means to dissuade North Korea from its nuclear weapons development and military provocations.
After meetings with the Minister for Development of Russian Far East Alexander Galushka and parliamentary leaders on Tuesday, Rep. Song Young-gil of the ruling Democratic Party said the Russian side stressed the importance of dialogue and negotiations in the dealing with North Korea's nuclear issues as opposed to sanctions and pressure.
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(Yonhap) |
In response, the South Korean side conveyed Moon's intention to control North Korea's nuclear and missile development through international collaboration. Moon also seeks to use trilateral economic projects involving the two Koreas and Russia in order to induce a change of behavior from North Korea, the Korean side also told Russian officials.
The Russian side also agreed to the possibility of using trilateral cooperation, which led to Song and Galushka's "detailed" discussion on ways to boost bilateral and trilateral economic collaboration, according to the special envoy.
"Minister Galushka suggested the trilateral cooperation of the South, North and Russia, which has been in stalemate due to the nuclear issues, be pushed forward independently and I agreed to that," Song told reporters on Tuesday.
The two sides also reportedly shared their understanding that such trilateral economic projects could induce North Korea to move toward resolving its nuclear problem, agreeing in principle to resume a number of three-way projects that are currently on hold.
Russia and the two Koreas had previously pushed for a joint logistics project known as "Rajin-Khasan" to link the three countries' sea ports to transport Russian coal to South Korea. South Korea, however, walked out of the project in March last year because of sanctions over North Korea's nuclear test two months earlier, effectively bringing the trilateral project to a halt.
Song said the Russian minister and he agreed on the need for South Korea's return to the project, as well as on the resumption of another trilateral project aimed at laying pipelines in North Korea to transport Russian natural gas to South Korea.
"Russia always leaves the door open for South Korea to join the trilateral projects and the ball is now in South Korea's court," Song quoted the Russian minister as saying.
The Russian minister also pointed out South Korea's "passive" investment activities in Russia, with the two sides agreeing to work toward increasing bilateral economic collaboration, the special envoy noted.
"More details of South Korea's plans on trilateral economic cooperation projects will be conveyed to President Vladimir Putin," Song said.
He is scheduled to meet with Putin on Wednesday in which he will deliver a handwritten letter from Moon and discuss bilateral and North Korean nuclear issues. (Yonhap)
