Politics

18:00, 26.09.2008 | Russia

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will arrive in Russia on September 28 on a two-day visit to discuss joint projects and international issues, and to attend a business forum, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Lee is set to meet with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on September 29.
The South Korean leader previously expressed an interest in joint projects to develop natural resources in Siberia and the Russian Far East with the involvement of North Korean workers.

The South Korean ambassador to Moscow, Li Gyu Hyen, earlier said Lee could also discuss means of continuing six-party talks on North Korea's denuclearization, involving the two Koreas, Russia, the U.S., China and Japan.

Last week, North Korean Foreign Ministry official Hyon Hak-bong told reporters that preparations were underway to re-start the country's Yongbyon nuclear reactor, due to failure by the U.S. to fulfill its obligations under a 2007 six-party deal.
While in Moscow Lee, a former Hyundai CEO, will attend a business forum in Moscow and a ceremony at which Russian energy giant Gazprom and South Korea's Cogas will sign a cooperation memorandum.

The South Korean ambassador has said his country intends to import 1.5 million metric tons of liquefied gas worth $1 billion under the Sakhalin II project in the Russian Far East.

Sakhalin II includes the Piltun-Astokhskoye and Lunskoye oil and gas fields on Sakhalin Island's northeastern shelf, with recoverable reserves estimated at 150 million tons (1.1 billion bbl) of oil and 500 billion cubic meters of natural gas.