North Korea poised to bolster Russia trade ties

Moscow: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev this week in a visit that may spur talks on the Asian country's nuclear weapons programme and pave the way to energy and transport deals.

The two leaders will hold talks in the Siberian city of Ulan-Ude on the border with Mongolia, according to Russian state television. The Kremlin last week announced the meeting without providing details. Kim, who crossed into Russia on August 20, is making his first trip since 2002, when he met then-President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok.

Russia is offering North Korea gas, electricity and railway projects to induce the communist regime to restart nuclear non-proliferation talks. The meeting with Medvedev aims to help end a three-year hiatus in six-party meetings that include China and the US on dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, and boost Russia's global image as a mediator.

"Russia wants to come out with an initiative to resolve the Korean peninsula problem through massive economic cooperation with North and South Korea," said Alexander Lukin, an Asia expert at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Total investment may exceed $100 billion (Dh367 billion), he said.

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak sees Kim's visit to Russia as "positive," Yonhap News reported, citing presidential spokesman Park Jung Ha in Mongolia, where Lee is visiting. Lee and US Vice-President Joe Biden will be in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator yesterday, about 420 km from Ulan Ude.

The Kim-Medvedev meeting comes after North Korea on August 18 threatened to bolster its nuclear deterrent "both in quality and quantity" after the US and South Korea began two weeks of military exercises. South and North Korea remain technically at war after their 1950-1953 conflict ended in a cease-fire. North Korea's attacks on its southern neighbour have kept relations tense.

Deadly shelling

South Korea's military on August 10 said it fired three artillery rounds after hearing explosions coming from the North. The north fired a second round into waters near Yeonpyeong Island, which was the target of a deadly shelling in November, Yonhap News reported.

North Korea yesterday demanded that South Korean personnel in the Mount Geumgang tourism zone leave within 72 hours, saying the South has "totally abandoned the protection of properties and interests" in the joint project, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.