MOSCOW, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Russian energy company Gazprom said it signed a memorandum of understanding with North Korea to build a natural gas transmission system to the Korean Peninsula.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in an August message to North Korean officials, said Moscow was eager to cooperate with the North Koreans "in all directions of mutual concern."
Gazprom chief Alexei Miller welcomed North Korean Oil Minister Kim Hui Yong to his Moscow office to discuss implementation of the gas network from Russia to the Korean Peninsula.
"Based on the meeting results a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Gazprom and North Korea's Ministry of Oil Industry," the Russian company stated.
Gazprom had said it would focus on expanding its Asian footprint. Some officials, however, have expressed skepticism over the Russian gas monopoly's ambitions in the Korean Peninsula.
In 2008, North and South Koreas abandoned a bilateral tourism initiative conceived of in 1998 after a South Korean tourist was killed by a North Korean soldier.
Scott Snyder, director of the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy, told South Korea's Yonhap news agency in early September that political and financial risks associated with any pipeline plan would be "staggering" when compared with the tourism measure.
Moscow said gas could start flowing to Seoul by 2017.
