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KOGAS says ready to build North Korea gas pipeline

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis intensified after leaders of the two countries met in April.  

South Korea has announced readiness to immediately start a joint project with Russia to construct a pipeline to import natural gas through North Korea.

Seung-II Cheong, the president and CEO of Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS), was quoted by media as saying that his company would proceed with the project as soon as certain conditions were met.

"First, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and also lifting of international sanctions are the prerequisites to promote that project — pipeline to South Korea via North Korea. The conditions should be met before we talk about the project in detail," Cheong told Russia’s Sputnik news agency.

"But KOGAS has been consulting with their Russian counterparts about this project for a long time. So we think if the conditions are met we can easily resume the consultations with Russian counterparts about this project."

When asked whether KOGAS would be ready to start the project immediately after a diplomatic decision is reached, Cheong said, "yes." "I hope the diplomatic efforts to ease tensions in the Korean Peninsula will bear fruit in near future," he added.

Sputnik reported that the Russian company that would be involved in the project would be Gazprom. It quoted the company’s deputy chairman as saying earlier in June that Gazprom had already started talks with South Korea over the pipeline project.

The idea of building a gas pipeline that would run from Russia to South Korea through North Korea — along with the plan to link the railways on the Korean Peninsula with the Russian railway network — was first considered more than 10 years ago but has been repeatedly delayed due to the discord between the two Koreas, Sputnik added.


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