 |
|
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has an interview with the Russian press at the Blue House on June 20, a day before his scheduled visit to Russia, to share his vision of co-prosperity involving South and North Korea and Russia. (provided by the Blue House)
|
Areas of railways, natural gas and electricity spotlighted for trilateral cooperation in an interview with Russian press.
President Moon Jae-in stressed the need to develop an inter-Korean peace regime into a “multilateral peace and security cooperation regime for Northeast Asia as a whole” in the intermediate and long term. Speaking on June 20, he cited the three areas of railways, natural gas, and electricity as especially promising for trilateral cooperation by South and North Korea and Russia. “Russian President Vladimir Putin and I have the same goal in terms of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and establishment of a peace regime,” President Moon was quoted as saying in an interview with Russia’s TASS news agency, Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily, and state-owned RTR network a day ahead of his scheduled visit to the country. “Once a Korean Peninsula peace regime has been established, that will mark the opening of an era of full-scale inter-Korean economic cooperation, and that inter-Korean cooperation will need to be trilateral cooperation with Russia also participating,” he added. He went on to mention railways, natural gas, and electricity as the three areas with the strongest prospects for trilateral cooperation. “In terms of representative projects where trilateral cooperation could start quickly, I could first mention the three areas of railways, natural gas, and electricity,” he said. Linking Korean Peninsula to Siberian railway “In the case of railways, linking South and North Korea railways and connecting them to Russia’s Siberian railway could allow distribution and travel via rail from South Korea to Europe,” he continued, adding that this scenario would “bring large economic gains to North Korea and tremendous profits to South Korea and Russia as well.” President Moon went to say Russian natural gas “can be supplied to North and South Korea, and even to Japan via submarine pipelines.” “Electricity produced in Russia could be supplied to North Korea and South, and even to Japan,” he continued, predicting this would “be a way of really promoting shared prosperity for the Eurasian continent going ahead.” President Moon also addressed the “nine bridges” South Korea-Russia economic cooperation strategy he mentioned in Vladivostok last September. “What we will need to do in the future is to quickly develop and implement specific action plans for each of the nine bridges [railways, electricity, natural gas, shipbuilding, fisheries, Arctic shipping routes, seaports, job creation, and agriculture],” he said. “There has been a great deal of progress in action plan discussions by the South Korea-Russia joint economic committee, and I anticipate the two sides will be able to sign something at the Eastern Economic Forum [in Russia] this September,” he added. Getting North Korea on board When asked for his assessment of the recent North Korea-US summit in Singapore, President Moon said, “I had been sincerely hoping for its success, but it succeeded beyond my expectations.” “North Korea-US relations have existed in antagonism and conflict for 70 years, and now the two sides have realized a historic shift toward putting an end to that hostile relationship and proceeding to a new system of peace,” he added. “As concrete steps toward that, North Korea pledged complete denuclearization, and the US promised to guarantee North Korea’s security,” he noted. “What remains now is for them to implement that outstanding agreement completely and swiftly.” In particular, President Moon noted that North Korea had pledged not to conduct further nuclear or missile testing, shut down its Punggye Village nuclear test site, and promised to dismantle its missile engine testing site, while South Korea and the US had made the decision to postpone their large-scale joint military drills. “I think that North Korea now needs to present a more concrete denuclearization plan, while the US needs to swiftly present and jointly implement comprehensive corresponding measures,” he said. “I also believe North Korea’s return of remains of American troops missing from the Korean War will happen shortly,” he added. President Moon described North Korean leader Kim Jong-un – whom he has now met at two inter-Korean summits – as being forthright, self-possessed, and polite. “Despite being very young, Chairman Kim was quite forthright and self-possessed,” he said. “In addition to that, he was very polite, showing respect and consideration to those older than him,” he noted. President Moon went on to say that Kim “made his commitment to denuclearization clear.” “He showed his commitment to willingly abandoning nuclear [capabilities] and channeling his energies toward economic development if they can receive guarantees on their system in exchange for abandoning nukes, along with a clear committee to joining the South on the path to peace and prosperity,” he said. “Chairman Kim and I also agreed on the need for inter-Korea economic cooperation to lead to trilateral cooperation with Russia,” he added. By Seong Yeon-cheol, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
