'Unexpected' rail ideas due

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will soon make public new initiatives on the Russian rail link, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported Saturday. The new proposals will be about the Trans-Korean main line reconstruction, the news agency quoted Mr. Kim as saying in a meeting with Russian Railways Minister Gennadiy Fadeyev before his departure from Vladivostok.

"Russia will soon hear about new, unexpected ideas from the Korean side about the reconstruction of the Trans-Korean main line," Mr. Kim reportedly said. The railroad construction project was the main issue addressed at Friday's meeting between Mr. Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two Koreas are expected to discuss their cross-border railroads at economic talks in Seoul Tuesday.

After Mr. Kim's armored train left Vladivostok for the return journey to North Korea, Mr. Fadeyev briefed reporters about what Russia had done for the railroad project. A group of Russian engineers and railroad specialists have been working on three projects, each costing $2.25 billion, in order to overcome the technology difference between Russia and North Korea, Mr. Fadeyev said.

"The project of joining the Trans-Korean and the Trans-Siberian railroads is an extremely important matter for Russia," Mr. Fadeyev said. "In the Kim-Putin meeting, Russia proposed an idea for establishing an international consortium for the railroad project to North Korea." China, Japan and countries in Central Asia have expressed interest in the project that would eventually link Europe to the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula.

Despite the last week's reports that the missile issue was conspicuously missing at the Kim-Putin meeting, the Japanese daily Chunichi Shimbun reported Sunday that the two leaders had discussed extending North Korea's missile-test moratorium beyond its scheduled expiration in 2003.

Speaking in a news conference with local media in Vladivostok on Saturday, Mr. Putin confirmed that such a discussion had taken place, but the daily did not elaborate on what the North's action would be. Quoting a diplomatic source, the newspaper also reported that Mr. Putin had said the North is aware that the world is concerned about the issue.

Mr. Kim is back in North Korea. He passed through the Russian border city of Khasan on Saturday, North Korea's official Central News Agency reported Sunday.

by Oh Dae-young