Dmitry Medvedev and Kim Jong Il to agree on gas transit via DPRK
The first visit of the North Korean leader to Russia in nearly a decade took place on August 24the.
The presidents of Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea agreed on the creation of a special committee for the development of cooperation in the gas sector. In Buryatia, D.Medvedev took a step towards re-union of North and South Korea and announced about the start of gas pipeline construction via the territory of North Korea.
The leaders of the two countries have managed to get problems, connected with the republic debts, moving and found a place for Pyongyang in a large energy project on the Korean Peninsula.
D.Medvedev has already ordered the head of Gazprom A.Miller to advance contacts with Pyongyang as for gas project.
The project on the supply of natural gas from the Far East to South Korea via Severnaya has been under consideration for many years.
In 2008, Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding on the construction of the gas pipeline with South Korean state-run Korea Gas Corporation, but the project has been frozen. At present Russia supplies about 1.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas (about 2 bln cubic meters) a year to South Korea from the project Sakhalin-2.
Kogas wants to buy 10 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year beginning from 2017, but transit guarantees are necessary.
The potential demands of North Korea for gas, via which territory the gas pipeline will go, are assessed at 10 billion cubic meters.Pyongyang can not buy the gas all alone. So, there is a question how Russia is about to guarantee transit to South Korea, if Severnaya starts fuel selection from the designed gas pipeline.
Translated by Iraida Idiyatova
