MOSCOW, March 23 (RIA Novosti) - North Korea cannot pay off its $8.8 billion Soviet-era debt to Russia and wants the country to make a political decision on the issue, the Russian co-chairman of an intergovernmental commission said Friday.
Konstantin Pulikovsky said the bilateral intergovernmental commission for economic and technological cooperation, which gathered in Moscow following a six-year break, cannot make such a decision.
"These decisions will be made by the two countries' leadership," he said.
Negotiations on the debt were suspended in 2002. Pyongyang has requested that Russia clear almost all of its debt, while Moscow has put forward various scenarios for settling the problem, including trading the debt for investment or property.
North Korea insists there are legislative restrictions to the implementation of Russia's proposals.
Under the protocol the co-chairmen will sign following the session, the Russian and North Korean finance ministries will resume talks on Pyongyang's debt.
The sides said an expedited settlement of the debt "would create the preconditions to develop bilateral trade and economic cooperation."
A total of 13 issues, including trade, interregional contacts, cooperation in power generation, metallurgy, mining and forestry industries, transport and agriculture, were on the commission's agenda.
Russia and North Korea agreed to attract foreign investments in the restoration of the Khasan (Russia)-Nadjin (North Korea) section of the Trans-Korean Railway. A relevant proposal was made by state-owned monopoly Russian Railways.
The sides also agreed to develop automobile communications and to set up a working group to implement relevant projects.
North Korea proposed that Russian companies join the reconstruction of its largest metallurgical plant, which was built in the 1960s using Soviet specialists.
Pyongyang asked Moscow to ensure monthly supplies of 50,000 metric tons of coal on an installment plan, and also to overhaul a blast furnace that annually produces 150,000 tons of steel.
The protocol envisages the reconstruction of an oil refinery on North Korea's eastern coast involving Gazprom Neft, the oil subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom.
The delegations also discussed the resumption of Russian crude supplies to the refinery, if Russian oil companies and the North Korean Ministry of Chemical Industry can reach an agreement.
The fifth session of the bilateral commission will be held in Pyongyang in 2008.
