Russia and North Korea Summit Discuss Denuclearization
International Energy Network News: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il will visit Russia tomorrow and will meet with President Medvedev and may also hold talks with Prime Minister Putin. The designated action is to ask for money, food and fuel. Unlike China, Russia allows the Kim family to get whatever they ask for. From Gorbachev to the present, Russia has always bartered, and there is no need to ask for credit. Russia recently announced that it would provide 50,000 tons of food to North Korea for humanitarian aid, which is only a drop in the bucket for the devastated North Korea. Kim Jong Il took the Workers' Party's Machinery Industry Minister Ju Kyu-chang, the First Minister of Light Industry Park Bong-joo, and the responsible secretary of North Hamgyong Province Oh Shin-yong to go. Russia is not just drinking vodka, it should be related to Russia's assistance in laying natural gas and electricity pipelines to North Korea, and Russia's participation in economic cooperation projects such as the reconstruction of the Russia-North Korea Hassan-Rajin Railway. Russia exports 500 billion cubic meters of natural gas every year, and a small fraction of it is enough for Kim Jong Il to spend the difference.
There was never a free lunch between the Soviet Union and Russia, and the resumption of the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue should be a suitable bargaining chip. Russia's Gazprom said it would supply gas to North Korea if North Korea changes its nuclear program. The laying of natural gas pipelines will hopefully solve Pyongyang's energy crisis once and for all. In contrast, China lacks an energy trump card. Hundreds of thousands of tons of fuel are given away for nothing every year, and North Korea takes advantage of it but still fails to do anything.
Kim Jong Il went to see Medvedev in the capital of the Siberian Republic of Buryatia. He took a train through Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, and Chita before arriving at Ulan-Ude; he bypassed Northeast China and would rather walk more than a thousand kilometers more than cross the border. Shenyang, Changchun, Harbin, Manzhouli, almost straight to Ulan-Ude. It reminds me of the oil pipeline from Russia to Japan. Instead of taking a shortcut through Northeast China, we ended up spending billions more to go around in Russia. It can be seen that the diplomacy and foreign trade of Russia and North Korea and Russia and Japan are the same as China.
Medvedev proposed to sign a memorandum of understanding between South Korea and Russia in natural gas, energy, and railway construction: In the 30 years starting in 2015, South Korea will import 7.5 million tons of Siberian liquefied natural gas every year. If a natural gas pipeline is built from Russia to North Korea and then to South Korea, South Korea will pay only 30% of the cost of liquefying the natural gas and shipping it. Russia, North Korea and South Korea have expanded cooperation and taken the lead in stabilizing Northeast Asia and denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.