N. Korean leader to meet with Medvedev on energy cooperation

ULAN-UDE, Russia, Aug. 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was scheduled to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in eastern Siberia on Wednesday for talks that could focus on energy cooperation and Pyongyang's nuclear program. Ahead of the rare talks, Medvedev entered the Sosnovy Bor military base on the outskirts of the eastern Siberian city of Ulan-Ude earlier in the day, though Kim has yet to arrive at the summit venue. The two leaders are widely expected to discuss Russia's proposal to build a pipeline through North Korea to sell Siberian natural gas to South Korea, one of the world's largest buyers of natural gas. Last year, South Korea imported 1.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas from Russia, accounting for roughly one-twentieth of Seoul's total imports, according to South Korea's state-run Korea Gas. Last month, a delegation of the Russian gas firm Gazprom visited North Korea. The North has reacted "positively" to the pipeline project, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his South Korean counterpart in Moscow earlier this month. The project, if realized, could help ease tensions on the peninsula and bring much-needed hard currency to North Korea while also helping to bring down the price of natural gas in South 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. Russia has rich natural gas and other resources that Moscow could use to counterbalance China's growing influence in North Korea. North Korea has relied heavily on China for trade, aid and diplomatic support since the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago. The two leaders are also likely to touch on how to revive long-stalled talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The North has expressed its interest in rejoining the disarmament talks it quit in 2009. Last month, its diplomats met with their U.S. counterparts in New York on how to resume the talks that also involve South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. Kim crossed the border on Saturday for his first trip to Russia since 2002. He has toured Bureiskaya hydroelectric plant in eastern Siberia's Amur region before reaching Ulan-Ude where he swam in a pool filled with Baikal water and visited an aircraft plant.