Russia and South Korea are aiming to launch a regular ferry line connecting their major port cities as part of a plan to expand bilateral economic cooperation, according to a report by TASS news agency.
“A direct ferry line is to open soon between Pohang and Vladivostok. It will link these two cities with North Korea’s ports in the future, which will help ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and help all countries develop mutually beneficial economic cooperation,” said South Korea’s Pohang Mayor Lee Kang-Deok at the first Russian-Korean Forum of Interregional Cooperation.
Kang-Deok said the organization of transport communication between the two ports will make it possible to deliver Russian coal to South Korean steelmaker POSCO, which is located in Pohang. It could also link the South Korean city with the Northeast Passage, the mayor said.
Pohang is a city of 530,000 people, located in the south-east of South Korea. It is the largest steel production center in the country. The city’s commercial seaport provides a cargo turnover of 50 million tons.
The Pohang mayor also noted the necessity to change from raw materials trading, which prevails in the bilateral trade turnover, to the joint processing and exports of finished products.
Russia’s Far East accounts for almost 38 percent of the whole Russian-South Korean trade turnover, according to Alexander Kozlov, the Russian Minister for the Development of the Far East. During his speech at the forum, Kozlov stressed that Russia’s Far East has a vast investment potential.
