North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s recent trip to Russia has drawn special attention. Kim arrived in the Russian border town of Khasan on August 20 on his special train and moved to Bureya in Amur the next day to inspect a hydroelectric power plant there, the largest one in the Far East. Later on, Kim visited industrial facilities in the eastern Siberian city of Ulan-Ude and held a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday, August 24. Dr. Hong Hyun-ik at the Sejong Institute notes that Kim’s Russian trip is the first of its kind in nine years.

Exactly nine years ago, on August 23, 2002, Kim Jong-il held a summit with then-Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok. Russia wielded a strong influence over the Korean Peninsula at the time. But North Korea-Russia relations have been estranged for the past nine years due to the North Korean nuclear issue and the economic situation in Russia. The latest Moscow-Pyongyang summit is significant in filling the nine-year vacuum in their relations and checking their respective strategic interests once again. North Korea has developed much closer relations with China in recent years, and China’s influence on North Korea has grown. Taking this into full consideration, Russia pushed ahead with a summit with North Korea.

In an unusual move, North Korean media has provided punctual regular updates on its leader’s Russia trip. The North’s Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim would visit Siberia and the Far Eastern region in Russia at the invitation of Medvedev and that the meeting between the two leaders would take place during Kim’s Russia visit. The North Korean media outlet confirmed Kim’s trip to Russia on the very day of his visit, a stark contrast from Kim’s China visit in May when the North maintained thorough security.

Kim Jong-il’s China visit was not made at the invitation of the Chinese government but in the form of an invitation from China’s Communist Party extended to the First Secretary of North Korea’s Workers’ Party. That is, the unofficial visit was based on party-to-party relations, not on a state-level invitation. China’s Communist Party tends to keep information highly confidential, so the North Korean media maintained tight security for its leader’s China trip. But that’s not the case with Russia. Russia is not governed by such a party now. The authoritarian democratic nation has officially invited a leader of a foreign country. North Korea made public Kim’s Russia visit in an apparent move to put strategic pressure on South Korea and the United States by demonstrating its strengthened relations with Russia.

So, why did the North Korean leader decide to visit Russia? Dr. Hong cites various reasons, but among others, he explains the trip was focused on promoting economic cooperation between North Korea and Russia with the ultimate purpose of resolving the economic difficulties in the North.

Since May last year, Kim Jong-il visited China three times and held three summits there. But China reportedly did not provide as much economic aid to North Korea as Kim had expected. Kim was disappointed, of course, but the North Korean economy has been increasingly dependent on China. It seems that North Korea seeks to improve relations with Russia, another regional power, in a strategic move to reduce its dependence on China. North Korea proclaimed to its people that it would become a strong and prosperous nation in 2012. In reality, however, the nation suffers from chronic food shortages and economic difficulties. Through his trip to Russia, Kim may intend to gain economic assistance, including food aid, from Russia.

As expected, economic issues topped the agenda items of the Kim-Medvedev summit Wednesday, with the core of the discussion topics comprising cooperation in gas, energy and railroad construction. The two leaders reportedly agreed to establish a three-way special commission to examine the construction of a pipeline for gas transit from Russia to South Korea through North Korean territory.

A pipeline that supplies rich natural gas from Sakhalin to Vladivostok will be completed in September. Russia is planning to send this gas all the way to South Korea via North Korea. Once this plan is approved, North Korea can earn more than 100 million dollars every year. South Korea, for its part, can reduce transportation costs significantly and enhance energy security if it brings in gas by way of North Korea. Another important project of linking the Trans Siberian Railway with the Trans Korean Railway can develop Busan in South Korea and Russian cities in the Far Eastern region into logistics bases. South Korea can reduce the costs of transporting goods to Europe considerably. North Korea, too, has much to gain from this project, since it can collect 100 million dollars annually in passage fees.

In the meantime, Medvedev’s spokesman said Wednesday that North Korea agreed on the early resumption of the six-party nuclear talks during the summit. Accordingly, experts say Russia’s role will be more important in regional diplomacy ahead of the resumption of the multilateral nuclear talks.

South Korea and the U.S. demand that North Korea allow the inspection team of the International Atomic Energy Agency to return to the North before the resumption of the six-party talks so the inspection team can confirm North Korea’s nuclear activities have halted and persuade the North to refrain from missile and nuclear tests. Seoul and Washington set these requirements as conditions for resuming the six-party talks. In contrast, North Korea and China want to restart the six-party talks without any preconditions. So, the stance Russia takes is important. Russia has had little influence on regional diplomacy thus far. But it will play a bigger role in Northeast Asia when three-way economic cooperation involving Russia and the two Koreas makes significant progress. Russia’s view on the six-party talks and the nuclear issue will become highly important.

For Russia, it is critical to hold dialogue with North Korea. Moscow hopes to use the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to be held in Vladivostok in September next year as an opportunity to promote and elicit foreign investment in the development of its Far Eastern region and Siberia. To this end, it is essential to maintain stability on the Korean Peninsula, the core of security concerns in Northeast Asia. So, how will the recent North Korea-Russia summit influence regional diplomacy?

What matters the most in regional diplomacy is to block North Korea from launching additional provocations and to persuade it to give up its illegal nuclear weapons development. A stronger relationship between North Korea and Russia will work as leverage to check the aggressive foreign policies of China, which is becoming a superpower in Northeast Asia rapidly. Economic cooperation projects Russia is pushing for are mostly beneficial for the two Koreas and Russia. Therefore, stronger relations between North Korea and Russia through the bilateral summit will contribute greatly to stabilizing the diplomatic situation on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea’s agreement on the resumption of the six-party nuclear talks seems to be a good signal for a solution to the nuclear issue. Diplomatic experts also predict that the economic projects involving South Korea, North Korea and Russia in gas, railroad and electricity will have a positive impact on regional diplomacy. Following the latest developments, we hope a warm diplomatic breeze will blow in this part of the world.


[Interview] High School Club Members Volunteer to Teach English to Defector Kids
These days, many students are actively engaging in volunteer work to display their abilities and use their creative ideas. A group of high school students, including those who have experience studying abroad, offers free English education to children of economically disadvantaged North Korean newcomers. Let’s meet with Shin Chae-young, a student at Dublin Jerome High School in the U.S., who created this club, dubbed ENKO.

The name of the club, ENKO, represents English for North Koreans Organization. I heard from one of my acquaintances last year that children of North Korean defectors needed English education. So I taught two elementary school students for eight weeks. After that, I found myself hoping to do this volunteer work again next year. I wondered if there were any groups dedicated to this kind of work, but I found nothing. So I decided to create a club. I thought there were many Korean students studying abroad who would share my goal. I imagined it would be a new experience to help out North Korean kids in South Korea.

Chae-young returned to the U.S. after his vacation ended and posted a message on a free online advertising portal, indicating he was recruiting students who would teach defector students. Ten people applied for the volunteer job, and they organized ENKO in March this year with the purpose of assisting children of North Korean expatriates in their English studies. Eight of the ten ENKO members study abroad, so they decided to teach students during the summer vacation. This summer, the group members taught North Korean kids once a week at a welfare center in Gayang-dong, western Seoul. The young volunteers are truly committed to their job, even visiting a local company for financial support.

We need money for teaching students with various methods, like board games. We came to a company and asked officials there to help us. They visited the welfare center and discussed teaching programs there. Finally, they decided to give us financial aid.

The club members now have to return to the U.S. before the new semester, but they are planning to help many more North Korean children learn English in an easier and more interesting way.

Other welfare centers are offering after-school classes for North Korean students. Next year, we’ll connect defector students with such welfare centers. We have established partnerships with unification- or North Korea-related groups here in the South. If we recruit enough members from those organizations, we can provide volunteer services to North Korean kids during school terms and during the winter vacation. We’re considering expanding the scale of our volunteer job and offer more effective education to the students.