VLADIVOSTOK, June 5 (RIA Novosti) – In a bid to settle the Korean row, Russia and North Korea agreed to cooperate with Seoul on trilateral railroad construction projects, Russia’s Far East Development Minister Alexander Galushko said Thursday.
“We have agreed to launch trilateral projects between Russia, DPRK and South Korea with a focus on the railroads project. It’s important to extend the Trans-Siberian Railroad to the Korean peninsula. It will serve to stabilize and improve the situation on the Korean peninsula as a whole,” he pointed out.
The agreements were reached at a meeting in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok where Galushko took part in the sixth annual session of the Russian-Korean standing commission, an intergovernmental agency on trade, economic and scientific cooperation.
The Trans-Siberian Railroad (TSR) is an extensive network of railroads connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg with Russia’s biggest industrial hubs in East Siberia and Far East. With a length of 9,289 km, it is the longest railroad line in the world.
In March, the Russian Far East Development Ministry confirmed Moscow’s and Pyongyang’s mutual interest in joint projects with South Korea, including international connections for railroads, gas pipelines and power lines.
Russia also proposed to invest into the Kaesong Industrial Park, a special economic zone in North Korea just north of Seoul where South Korean companies are allowed to employ northern workers.
