Lawmakers on the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee embarked on three-day tour of border areas between China, Russia and North Korea Thursday.
The committee members, including Chairman Rep. Yoo Ki-june, vowed to support South Korean companies' participation in the Najin-Hasan Project, a collaborative logistics project between North Korea and Russia.
"I will make efforts to help push for a joint logistics project among the two Koreas and Russia," Yoo said before leaving for China.
The tour starts at Hunchun, a Chinese city near North Korea's eastern border where the committee members plan to visit logistics facilities run by South Korean companies and meet with local Koreans.
Then they plan to visit Russia to tour its eastern border cities of Khasan and Vladivostok before returning to Korea on Saturday, the official said.
The lawmakers' visit was to support the South's consortium joining a project modernizing North Korea's Rajin port to improve its logistics infrastructure through a railway between Russia and North Korea.
Rep. Yoo said, "A logistics revolution will emerge once the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) becomes connected to the Trans-Korean Railways. It will be the Railway Silk Road."
This ambitious project is expected to connect South Korea's railways to Russia's TSR via North Korea. The South expects it will reduce the logistics costs for its exports to Eurasia.
The project to connect the TSR with the Trans-Korean Railway has been discussed for more than a decade, but has remained stalled due to strained inter-Korean relations.
Also, South Korean companies are currently bound by the May 24 measures, which cut off all economic, cultural and cooperation projects between South and North Korea after the North sank the South's warship Cheonan in March 2010.
They thus abide by the law by investing in Russian companies instead, rather than North Korean companies.
The South Korean consortium is looking for a breakthrough by acquiring a 49 percent stake in the Russia-North Korea joint venture, "RasonConTrans," in which Russia holds a 70 percent stake and North Korea 30 percent.
The committee members, including Chairman Rep. Yoo Ki-june, vowed to support South Korean companies' participation in the Najin-Hasan Project, a collaborative logistics project between North Korea and Russia.
"I will make efforts to help push for a joint logistics project among the two Koreas and Russia," Yoo said before leaving for China.
The tour starts at Hunchun, a Chinese city near North Korea's eastern border where the committee members plan to visit logistics facilities run by South Korean companies and meet with local Koreans.
Then they plan to visit Russia to tour its eastern border cities of Khasan and Vladivostok before returning to Korea on Saturday, the official said.
The lawmakers' visit was to support the South's consortium joining a project modernizing North Korea's Rajin port to improve its logistics infrastructure through a railway between Russia and North Korea.
Rep. Yoo said, "A logistics revolution will emerge once the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) becomes connected to the Trans-Korean Railways. It will be the Railway Silk Road."
This ambitious project is expected to connect South Korea's railways to Russia's TSR via North Korea. The South expects it will reduce the logistics costs for its exports to Eurasia.
The project to connect the TSR with the Trans-Korean Railway has been discussed for more than a decade, but has remained stalled due to strained inter-Korean relations.
Also, South Korean companies are currently bound by the May 24 measures, which cut off all economic, cultural and cooperation projects between South and North Korea after the North sank the South's warship Cheonan in March 2010.
They thus abide by the law by investing in Russian companies instead, rather than North Korean companies.
The South Korean consortium is looking for a breakthrough by acquiring a 49 percent stake in the Russia-North Korea joint venture, "RasonConTrans," in which Russia holds a 70 percent stake and North Korea 30 percent.
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