N. Korean leader arrives in Ulan-Ude for summit with Medvedev

(ATTN: UPDATES with details; ADDS background) ULAN-UDE, Russia, Aug. 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arrived in the eastern Siberian city of Ulan-Ude by train Tuesday ahead of his summit talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Kim headed by car for an unidentified destination in the city's downtown area after being greeted by Russian officials at Ulan-Ude Station on the fourth day of his trip to Russia. Russian police and security officials cordoned off the routes leading to the station one hour before Kim's arrival, prompting some local commuters to complain. Kim is expected to meet with Medvedev on Wednesday for talks that could focus on, among other things, the North's nuclear weapons program and cooperation in the energy and transport sectors. Russia has been involved in talks to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programs along with the Koreas, China, the United States and Japan. The North has expressed interest in rejoining the disarmament-for-aid talks, which it quit in 2008. Last month, North Korea and the United States held rare high-level meetings in New York on how to resume the six-nation nuclear talks. Kim crossed the border on Saturday for his first trip to Russia since 2002 and toured a hydroelectric power plant in eastern Siberia's Amur region before arriving in Ulan-Ude. His trip to the Bureiskaya plant, the largest in Russia's Far East, indicated that the two countries could discuss enhancing bilateral cooperation in energy. For years, Russia has floated the idea of transmitting surplus electricity produced by the power station to the Korean Peninsula. It has also proposed building a pipeline through the divided Korean Peninsula to sell Siberian natural gas to South Korea, one of the world's largest buyers of natural gas. If realized, the project could help ease tensions on the peninsula and bring much-needed hard currency to North Korea. North Korea could expect to earn more than US$500 million a year in handling charges over the gas pipeline, according to South Korean analysts. The bilateral relations between North Korea and Russia cooled following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the North's former mentor, two decades ago. North Korea has since relied heavily on China for trade, aid and diplomatic support. In a sign of deepening ties, Kim has made three trips to China in just over a year. Kim's trip to Russia comes as the North is struggling to build a prosperous and powerful nation next year, the centennial of the birth of the country's late founder and president, Kim Il-sung, the father of current leader Kim Jong-il. The North has relied on foreign handouts since the late 1990s when it suffered a massive famine that was estimated to have killed 2 million people.