Seoul's new leader would tap Siberian resources using North Korean labor
South Korea's President-elect Lee Myung-Bak has proposed a joint project to exploit natural resources in the Russian Far East using cheap North Korean labor.
South Korean president-elect Lee Myung-bak, left, with Gleb lvashentsov, Russian Ambssador to South Korea, in Seoul, on Dec. 21.
AP/Jung Yeon-je
Siberia, which encompasses more than three quarters of Russia's territory, holds nearly 80 percent of that country's oil resources.
Russia has welcomed Lee's proposal as a move to develop bilateral ties between Moscow and Seoul.
Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov told South Korea's state-run broadcaster KBS that his country would welcome South Korea's participation in projects to develop the Far East and Lee’s idea of using North Korean labor. A total of 23,000 North Koreans are working in Russia, he said.
The proposal was discussed during a meeting with Russian Ambassador to Seoul Gleb Ivashentsov after Lee's landslide presidential election victory on Dec. 19.
Lee, who would be the first businessman to lead South Korea, will be inaugurated in February.
In the meeting with the Russian envoy, Lee said the project would be a "turning point" in economic cooperation in the Northeast Asian region and would boost Russia's development as well.
"I'd like to get on this project right after I assume office," he was quoted as saying.
Lee's office said he has been interested for years in linking South Korea's advanced technology with North Korea's cheap labor and Russia's abundant natural resources.
The CEO-turned-president has pledged to pursue a "pragmatic" diplomacy in a departure from a decade of left-leaning rule focused on making common cause with North Korea at the expense of Seoul's post-Korean War alliance with the U.S.
