Lee, Medvedev agree to start pipeline project in 2013

President Lee Myung-bak and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed Wednesday to work closely together for the success of a gas pipeline project linking their two countries via North Korea.

The agreement was reached at the sixth summit between the two leaders at a hotel in St. Petersburg.

In their talks, the two agreed that the gas pipeline will benefit all three countries, according to President Lee`s spokesman Park Jeong-ha.

Nikolai Dubik, head of the legal department of the Russian gas company Gazprom, released the content of a memorandum of understanding on the roadmap for the project. Work on the pipeline will begin in 2013 and operations will start by 2017.

According to the roadmap, the two sides will sign a gas supply agreement between October this year and January next year after they agree on basic conditions for Russia`s supply of gas to South Korea. They will sign a formal agreement between January and April next year.

Seoul and Moscow will also draw up a blueprint for the pipeline by September 2013, then break ground for the project the same month and begin to supply gas in January 2017.

While the two sides are still negotiating the agreement, they will likely speed up the project depending on progress in North Korea`s denuclearization and fees for the passage through the North.

The South Korean presidential office cautioned against the interpretation that works on the pipeline will start in 2013 under the memorandum of understanding.

According to a presidential official, Russia is more willing to carry out the project than South Korea, but failure to agree on key issues such as the cost of passage through North Korea will take the project nowhere.

The state-run Korea Gas Corp. said its chief executive went to Russia in September for an agreement with Gazprom to begin gas supply in January 2017, but cannot definitely say the pipeline will be completed by December 2016.