Russia-South Korea trade may reach $7 billion in 2005, Putin said adding that it had grown by 30% recently. "Today we can not only sum it all up but outline prospects and move further," he said pointing to progress in bilateral trade and economic relations.
Putin also said South Korea could join the construction of an oil pipeline to Japan and China if a relevant decision was made. "I am convinced that all countries of the [Asia-Pacific] region were interested in the implementation of the [oil pipeline] project that makes supplies of energy resources to this region more reliable," he said. "Our [South] Korean partners, first of all, financial structures, may join this work."
He said a natural gas pipeline could be built from Russia to the Korean peninsula involving both South and North Koreas. "There are interesting [projects] of laying [natural] gas systems [to the Korean peninsula], above all, from Sakhalin. This work is possible both in the bilateral Russian-South Korean and the trilateral Russian-North Korean-South Korean formats."
Speaking about the key spheres of Russian-South Korean cooperation, Putin mentioned energy, space, transport, communications, science, information technologies and the military and technical sphere.
The Russian president expressed the hope that the sides would coordinate the details of a possible flight of a South Korean astronaut to the International Space Station.
Roh Moo-hyun said Russia was an active participant in economic and security processes in Northeast Asia, noting the good potential for cooperation with Russia. "The Russian economy is developing very quickly and very successfully," he said. He highlighted the development of military technology, science and space research in Russia, adding that cooperation in these spheres would be advantageous to both states.
"The Russian president's current visit [to South Korea] would be an important event in strengthening friendship and mutual trust between the two countries," Roh Moo-hyun said.
The two leaders also discussed the North Korean nuclear problem. "We speak for continuation of the six-party format of the talks and believe the most reasonable way to peacefully resolve the problem and ease tensions in the region is the negotiating process," Putin said.
The South Korean president highly assessed Russia's role in the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear problem. "I would like to stress Russia's pro-active role in and its contribution to the six-party talks," Roh Moo-hyun said.
Putin congratulated his South Korean counterpart on the successful completion of the APEC summit saying it was "brilliantly organized" and was very fruitful.
