Silence of Juche

Severnaya Korea needs both money and a nuclear bomb, the first meeting of the interdirmy commission on trade and economic cooperation between Russia and the DPRK ended in virtually to no avail in six years. "The Korean side directly and openly says that in the current situation, the DPRK is not able to pay the public debt that is available to Russia," the co -chair of the Russian part of the commission, head of Rostekhnadzor Konstantin Pulikovsky, said on Friday.

According to him, the Korean side proposed to make a political decision on this issue, which depends on the leadership of the two countries. However, the North Koreans, including the co -chairman of the interdiscipline, the Minister of Foreign Trade of the DPRK Lim Gene Man, after the meeting kept complete silence.

The public debt of the North Korea of Russia as a successor of the USSR is, according to the Russian version, $ 8.8 billion. For this money since the mid-1950s, 70 industrial enterprises were built in North Korea. In addition to the state defense of the DPRK, energy resources, heavy industry and food were supplied to the DPRK.

Negotiations of the Russian and North Korean Ministry of Finance to resolve the public debt have been going on since December last year. The Russian side proposed several options at once. For example, to own property in Korea. “But according to Korean laws, it is not supposed to be transferred to the ownership of foreigners,” said Evgeny Anoshin, a press secretary of Rostekhnadzor, another option - to write off 80% of the public debt. Nor or the other offer of Koreans, according to unofficial information, they expect to write out 97-98% of the debt. The final decision is planned to be made before the end of 2007.

The turnover between Russia and the DPRK in 2006 amounted to $ 209.7 million, including the export of Russia - $ 189.7 million, the export of DPRK - $ 20 million. The main goods of Russian export in the DPRK - coal, timber, oil products, and nitrogen fertilizers. Korean export to Russia is labor, seafood, food and agricultural products. In addition, as noted in a joint protocol, the last 6 years has been worked out a number of projects in metallurgy, mechanical engineering and mining industry. But their implementation did not take place due to the lack of sources of financing.

As a result, there is practically the only product that Koreans can now be offered - they are themselves as cheap labor for Russian enterprises. Already in this half -year, Russia and North Korea will sign agreements on the use of labor, which "will actively contribute to the widespread use of the labor of Korean workers and specialists in the forest industry, coalistic, agriculture and construction," the protocol of the meeting said. In addition, it is planned to sign customs cooperation agreements, on motor transport and railway reports.

As a result, a project of connection of the Transcore Railway with the Trans -Siberian Railway may move from the dead point, which will allow Russia to establish transit between the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. In the standby mode and cooperation of the countries of North-Eastern Asia as part of the Free Economic Zone "Pogangan". Back in 1995, Russia, China, DPRK, Mongolia and South Korea signed an agreement on its creation, but nuclear problems pushed the project launching deadlines.

03/25/2007 / Evgeny Belyakov, the material was published in the "newspaper" No. 53 dated 03/26/2007.