President Roh and Russian President Putin to Meet on September 21

Kim Jong-min, spokesman of Cheong Wa Dae, said on September 7 that President Roh Moo-hyun will be officially visiting Russia for three days from September 20 at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On September 19, Roh will be visiting Kazakhstan on a state visit. It will be the first time since Korea signed a treaty of amity with Kazakhstan in 1992 that a Korean president has visited Kazakhstan as a national guest. Following, he will visit Russia and hold summit talks with Putin on September 21.

At the summit talks with Putin, Roh plans to discuss Russia’s energy support to North Korea and participation in the process of freezing and dismantling North Korea’s nuclear development, and also will be adopting a joint declaration.

The two will also talk about connecting the Trans-Korea Railway to Trans-Siberian Railway, Korea’s participation in gas development in East Siberia that Russia is working on, and the introduction of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) from the Sakhalin region.

With Roh’s visit to Russia, Korea and Russia have decided to establish a joint research committee on energy cooperation. It is known that the Korean government is promoting an agreement between the two nations on gas supplies, which would provide gas from East Siberia to Korea through the Maritime (Primorskii) Provinces of Siberia.

Also, the nations are planning to sign an agreement to cooperate in space technology so that Korean astronauts can be trained. During his visit to Russia, Roh will be visiting a Russian space center.

A total of 50 businessmen, including Lee Gun-hee from Samsung, Goo Bon-moo from LG, Park Sam-gu from Keumho, and Lee Jun-yong from Daelim, will be accompanying Roh on his visit to Kazakhstan and Russia.

Jung-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com