RUSSIAN GAS AND THE KOREAN PENINSULA

LEE SEES RUSSIA GAS PIPELINE VIA NORTH KOREA AS WIN-WIN FOR CHEAPER ENERGY

Brett Miller and Matthew Winkler

Bloomberg, September 23, 2011

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak said plans to build a natural-gas pipeline across the divided peninsula are realistic, less than a year after a deadly North Korean artillery attack on a disputed island.

“I do not consider this as a far-fetched dream,” Lee said in an interview in New York, speaking through an interpreter. He called the project “a win-win for everyone involved.”

OAO Gazprom, Russia’s gas-export monopoly, this month signed preliminary agreements with South Korea’s Korea Gas Corp. and the North Korean government to build a pipeline that would carry as much as 10 billion cubic meters of gas a year across its eastern border to the peninsula. Lee’s support for the project may signal an easing of tensions between the two nations, which haven’t signed a peace treaty following their 1950-1953 civil war.

“I’m aware that the Russians and the North Koreans have been discussing this issue and that some progress, good progress, is being made,” Lee said. “We can buy gas at reasonable prices; and for the North Koreans, they can also get some benefit by collecting the transaction fee.”

Lee rolled back his predecessor’s “Sunshine Policy” of engaging with North Korea when he came to office in 2008, arguing that the policy rewarded Kim Jong Il’s regime for provocative behavior -- a view echoed by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama.

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