Russians visit North Korea as Kim's train treks over Siberia
Source: Agencies |
August 23, 2011, Tuesday
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RUSSIAN military officers flew to North Korea yesterday for talks about renewing military ties as North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's armored train rolled through the resource-rich far east of Russia on his secretive journey to a summit with President Dmitry Medvedev.
Kim is to meet Medvedev today near Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia. North Korea is increasingly showing signs it is prepared to restart six-nation disarmament talks in exchange for aid.
Russian military officials arrived in the North Korean capital yesterday for a five-day visit, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
The Russian Defense Ministry said talks will focus on the renewal of military cooperation between the countries, possible joint exercises "of a humanitarian nature" and an exchange of friendly visits by Russian and North Korean ships.
The two countries will also discuss "possibilities of joint exercises and training of search and rescue operations for sinking vessels as well as providing assistance to people during natural disasters."
Kim's train crossed into Russia on Saturday morning and passed through Khabarovsk before heading west along a railway running roughly parallel with Russia's border with China and Mongolia.
The first and so far only time Kim is known to have left the train was during a stop on Sunday at the small Bureya station in the Amur province.
Kim was taken in his armored Mercedes for a tour of a hydroelectric power plant and its 139-meter dam on the Bureya River. He was briefed on the plant's history and electricity production capacity and reportedly praised the project.
Russia has proposed transmitting surplus electricity produced by the plant to both North and South Korea, according to South Korean media.
Kim's next stop was unclear, but a Russian intelligence source suggested his train could be heading for the city of Skovorodino, the starting point for a 1,000-kilometer oil pipeline linking oil fields in eastern Siberia and China that was inaugurated last year.
Kim's train is traveling along the Trans-Baikal Railway and believed to be heading ultimately for Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia, a Buddhist province near Lake Baikal, for the summit with Medvedev.
One key topic for the talks is expected to be the construction of a pipeline that would stream Russian natural gas through the North's territory to the South. South Korean media said the North could earn up to US$100 million a year, but negotiations have resulted in little progress because of the nuclear dispute.
Officials from Russia's state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom visited North Korea in early July for talks on the pipeline proposal. North Korean officials at the time reacted positively, a change from a previously reluctant position, according to South Korea's Foreign Ministry.
North Korean diplomats separately met US and South Korean officials last month to discuss the resumption of the nuclear talks, which have been stalled for more than two years.
Kim last visited Russia in 2002, a four-day trip limited to the Far East. A year earlier, however, he made a 24-day train trek to Moscow and back.
Kim is to meet Medvedev today near Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia. North Korea is increasingly showing signs it is prepared to restart six-nation disarmament talks in exchange for aid.
Russian military officials arrived in the North Korean capital yesterday for a five-day visit, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
The Russian Defense Ministry said talks will focus on the renewal of military cooperation between the countries, possible joint exercises "of a humanitarian nature" and an exchange of friendly visits by Russian and North Korean ships.
The two countries will also discuss "possibilities of joint exercises and training of search and rescue operations for sinking vessels as well as providing assistance to people during natural disasters."
Kim's train crossed into Russia on Saturday morning and passed through Khabarovsk before heading west along a railway running roughly parallel with Russia's border with China and Mongolia.
The first and so far only time Kim is known to have left the train was during a stop on Sunday at the small Bureya station in the Amur province.
Kim was taken in his armored Mercedes for a tour of a hydroelectric power plant and its 139-meter dam on the Bureya River. He was briefed on the plant's history and electricity production capacity and reportedly praised the project.
Russia has proposed transmitting surplus electricity produced by the plant to both North and South Korea, according to South Korean media.
Kim's next stop was unclear, but a Russian intelligence source suggested his train could be heading for the city of Skovorodino, the starting point for a 1,000-kilometer oil pipeline linking oil fields in eastern Siberia and China that was inaugurated last year.
Kim's train is traveling along the Trans-Baikal Railway and believed to be heading ultimately for Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia, a Buddhist province near Lake Baikal, for the summit with Medvedev.
One key topic for the talks is expected to be the construction of a pipeline that would stream Russian natural gas through the North's territory to the South. South Korean media said the North could earn up to US$100 million a year, but negotiations have resulted in little progress because of the nuclear dispute.
Officials from Russia's state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom visited North Korea in early July for talks on the pipeline proposal. North Korean officials at the time reacted positively, a change from a previously reluctant position, according to South Korea's Foreign Ministry.
North Korean diplomats separately met US and South Korean officials last month to discuss the resumption of the nuclear talks, which have been stalled for more than two years.
Kim last visited Russia in 2002, a four-day trip limited to the Far East. A year earlier, however, he made a 24-day train trek to Moscow and back.
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