DHAKA: Russian president Vladimir Putin was in South Korea Wednesday, pushing a pet project for a new trading route linking Asia and Europe by rail that requires prying open North Korea.

The ambitious scheme envisages an ‘Iron Silk Road’ uniting the rail networks of South and North Korea and connecting them to Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railway.

But it faces huge political obstacles, given the volatility of inter-Korean relations and the international community’s struggle to contain the North’s nuclear ambitions through UN sanctions.

Speaking to a South Korea-Russia business conference during his one-day visit, Putin acknowledged the difficulties but said they were outweighed by the project’s potential advantages.

‘I hope political problems will be solved at an early date, as South Korea, North Korea and Russia will reap great economic benefits when it’s completed,’ Putin said, urging South Korean investors to come on board.

‘This project, if accomplished, will help make a great contribution to the establishment of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula,’ he added Russia took a first step in September, when it completed a 54-kilometre track from its southeast border town of Khasan to the North Korean port of Rajin.

BDST: 1549 HRS, NOV 13, 2013
RoR/BSK