The third trial operation of a logistics cooperation project involving the two Koreas and Russia began Tuesday, with Seoul officials conducting an onsite inspection in the North to determine the project’s feasibility.

A day earlier, the Seoul government sent 20 officials to Rajin and Sonbong on the North’s northeastern coast via Russia’s Vladivostok, to check the port facilities in Rajin and the North’s overall capabilities to load and unload cargo containers, officials said.

The three nations have been pushing for the “Rajin-Khasan” project to bolster their logistics and economic cooperation. The 54-kilometer railway between the North’s Rajin and Russia’s Khasan is used to transport Russia’s bituminous coal to the North and then to the South by ship.

During the latest test operation that will run until Nov. 30, a total of 120,000 tons of Russia’s Siberian coal and 10 shipping containers carrying Chinese mineral water will be transported to the South, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said.

Russian coal will be sent to Gwangyang in South Jeolla Province and Pohang in North Gyeongsang Province, while the Chinese water will be transported to the southern port city of Busan. For this operation, two 45,000-ton Chinese-administered bulk ships and one 10,000-ton container ship have been mobilized.

South Korean firms POSCO, Hyundai Merchant Marine and the Korea Railroad Corporation are participating as a consortium for the project.

Seoul has pushed for the project as part of its “Eurasia Initiative” through which it has strived to bolster economic cooperation with Eurasian states by establishing a pan-Eurasia system of transport and energy networks that link Korea to those states.

Seoul has promoted the initiative to revitalize the regional economy, create jobs, push Pyongyang toward openness and reform, defuse cross-border tensions and lay the groundwork for national reunification.

The project involving the North, in actuality, violates the so-called May 24 sanctions that ban any new investment for the North. But Seoul has carried out the project as an exception to the sanctions that were placed in 2010 after Pyongyang’s torpedo attack on a South Korean warship.

For Russia, the project is crucial as it has been seeking to develop its Far Eastern region and diversify its energy export routes. Pyongyang has also tried to use this project as it seeks to secure sources of revenues from outside and shore up its debilitated economy. 

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)