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S. Korea welcomes cooperation with Russia, N. Korea - ambassador

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Seoul backs Russia's proposal to set up tripartite intergovernmental commissions with North Korea to discuss major joint economic projects, South Korea's ambassador to Russia said Tuesday.
MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) - Seoul backs Russia's proposal to set up tripartite intergovernmental commissions with North Korea to discuss major joint economic projects, South Korea's ambassador to Russia said Tuesday.

Russia has proposed setting up commissions in various areas of cooperation with North and South Korea, including a possible link-up of the Trans-Korean Railroad with the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

"Our government supports future meetings between officials of Russia, and South and North Korea," Li Gyu Hyen said.

Russian companies have been negotiating the reconstruction of the eastern sector of the Trans-Korean Railroad and the Trans-Siberian line since Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il discussed in 2003 linking the three networks to create a trade route from Far Eastern ports to Western Europe.

However, Konstantin Pulikovsky, head of Russian industrial safety regulator Rostekhnadzor, said earlier that projects between the states were being held back by "misunderstandings and lack of information between the countries."

The South Korean ambassador said meetings of tripartite commissions would allow the sides to discuss the implementation of transportation and other potentially beneficial economic projects, if the North takes a constructive approach to the proposal.

"We are open to these meetings, but the North Korean position has not been clarified," Li said. "This is why we will have to wait and see."

North and South Korea re-linked their railways on June 14, 2003 on two sections of the 4-kilometer-wide (2.5-mile-wide) "demilitarized zone" which divides the peninsula along the 38th parallel.

In May, two trains made the first rail crossings between North and South Korea since the 1951-1953 Korean War, in a historic link-up.

The two Koreas have increased efforts to improve relations since breakthrough six-nation talks in February, which also involved China, Japan, Russia, and the United States, at which Pyongyang agreed to scrap its nuclear program in exchange for aid, energy supplies, and security guarantees.

A groundbreaking North-South Korean summit to expand bilateral economic cooperation, expected to mark a successive thaw in the two countries' relations, has been scheduled for August 28-30.

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