Following the recent summit between President Dimitry Medvedev of Russia and Kim Jong Il, in which the two sides agreed on the idea of constructing a gas pipeline between Russia and South Korea via North Korea, a leading South Korean lawmaker has suggested that talks between the three countries might be achievable within the next few months, and that these may even generate a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgreement has been reached between South Korea and Russia on the gas pipeline, and since there is also agreement between North Korea and Russia, if project officials from the 3 sides gather for talks then the gas pipeline may come to pass,\u201d the chairman of the ruling Grand National Party, Hong Joon Pyo, told an event this morning, adding that he is aware that talks could happen as early as November this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gas pipeline could bring new prospects for inter-Korean relations,\u201d he went on. <\/p>\n
Until the most recent Russia-North Korea summit in Ulan Ude, North Korea had been broadly negative on the gas pipeline concept, but is showing a keener interest this time around.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, South Korea and Russia actually signed a MoU on the subject in September, 2008, while President Lee suggested further talks on it in September last year as well, but North Korea dismissed the idea.<\/p>\n
In any case, as a result of North Korea\u2019s sudden enthusiasm there are voices being raised in South Korea to say that this could be the turning point that people have been looking for, and that agreement on an economic project of this ilk could have a considerable effect on both inter-Korean relations and the prospects for the Six-Party Talks.<\/p>\n
However, such a complex plan with a trilateral component will be no simple task to achieve, and with political questions hanging over it and South Korea yet to receive a satisfactory response to issues of the Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong Island shelling from North Korea, there would appear to be a rocky road ahead.<\/p>\n
As Minister of Unification Hyun In Taek put it on Monday, \u201c\u201cThe gas pipeline isn\u2019t just something between Russia and North Korea; since it is an issue that must be connected to South Korea, there has to be serious discussion between North and South.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo make this work properly,\u201d he went on, \u201cinter-Korean trust must be established. A gas pipeline is a long term strategic issue for the future, so all possible scenarios must be considered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Equally, an anonymous government source pointed out today, \u201cAs yet this a situation where nothing has been achieved, so it is too early to say that it will lead inter-Korean relations in a good direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following the recent summit between President Dimitry Medvedev of Russia and Kim Jong Il, in which the two sides agreed on the idea of constructing a gas pipeline between Russia and South Korea via North Korea, a leading South Korean lawmaker has suggested that talks between the three countries might be achievable within the next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":16396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n