Gazprom officials may visit S. Korea next week over pipeline project: sources

SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Yonhap) -- Officials from Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom may visit South Korea as early as next week to explore ways to build a gas pipeline linking the two countries via North Korea, sources said Sunday, the latest in a series of moves to put the project in motion.
The officials are likely to visit next week or the week after that and meet with their counterparts from state-run Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS), according to multiple government sources, who declined to be named.
If realized, the visit will come weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly agreed to the lucrative pipeline project during his summit talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Aug. 24. The pipeline, if built, will boost exports of Siberian natural gas to South Korea -- one of the world's largest natural gas consumers -- and is expected to bring more than US$500 million a year in transit fees to the impoverished North, according to South Korean analysts.
The project has also raised hopes for an improvement in inter-Korean ties, which have reached their lowest point in decades following the North's deadly military attacks last year. Seoul blames Pyongyang for the March 2010 sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan and the artillery shelling of the front-line island of Yeonpyeong, which killed a total of 50 South Koreans.
A KOGAS official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he did not know the "details of Gazprom's plans for a visit."
Konstantin Vnukov, Moscow's ambassador to Seoul, told Yonhap News Agency in an interview on Aug. 26 that he expects consultations between the two gas companies to "come soon."
Meanwhile, Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, the chief of South Korea's ruling Grand National Party, said last week the two Koreas and Russia plan to meet in November to discuss the trilateral project.
hague@yna.co.kr