By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter

North Korea and Russia will redraw their border along the Tumen River as the terrain has changed over time, a report said Thursday.

The two countries first discussed the matter in Pyongyang in 2000.

Late last year, both sides agreed to hold working-level talks on a new treaty but have yet to detail when and where the first meeting will take place, Yonhap News reported, quoting an official of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Despite an accord to set the border signed in 1990, Pyongyang and Moscow have found it difficult to draw the boundary along the 17.5-kilometer river because torrential rains have caused the riverbed to fluctuate.

They conducted a joint topographical survey on terrain changes between 2000 and 2003, which confirmed floods eroded part of both territories and washed away most of boundary markers set up after the 1990 agreement.

To prevent further erosion, Moscow planted willows along the river in 2003 and has built a 13-kilometer bank, spending approximately 11 billion won since 2005, the report said.

Russia said renegotiation on the boundary is necessary because changed waterways of the Tumen River are submerging its land.

Several diplomatic observers in Seoul, however, warned that North Korea could concede part of its territory to attract Russian capital for a development project in the Rajin Songbong area, a free economic zone in the reclusive state.

The two countries will need time to reach an agreement since economic and diplomatic issues are deeply related to the border issue, they said.

ksy@koreatimes.co.kr