The first batch of test-run coal shipment sent as part of the Rajin-Khasan project arrived in the South Korean port of Pohang on Saturday.

Some 40-thousand tons of coal produced in Siberia was transported by 54 kilometers of rail connecting Russia's Khasan and North Korea's Rajin Port. The coal then left the port on a Chinese ship bound for South Korea on Thursday.

After the coal is unloaded on Monday, it will be used by South Korea's biggest steelmaker POSCO. It is the first time for Russian coal to arrive in South Korea via North Korean rail.

POSCO currently imports two million tons of Russian coal a year by ship through the Russian port of Vladivostok. The steelmaker is considering increasing the imports of Russian coal if the sea route via the North Korean port of Rajin turns out to be more cost-effective.

The Rajin-Khasan project, which aims to develop a 54 kilometer railroad track connecting the North and Russia and modernize the North's port into a logistics hub, is a business venture between North Korea and Russia and three South Korean companies. The government considers the project to not be subject to its current economic sanctions on Pyongyang as it takes a form of indirect investment through a third country.

Russia's minister for development of the Far East Alexander Galushka visited South Korea earlier this week and spoke with South Korean government officials regarding the project.