South Korea's Friendship Train crossing Russia

A Friendship Train is bringing a South Korean delegation to Moscow today.

The Russo-Korean Friendship Through Train is a major public political event in honour of the tenth anniversary of diplomatic relations established. Arranged by the South Korean government and business activists, and assisted by Russia's Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Railways, it started in Vladivostok, provincial centre on the Russia Pacific coast, July 14.

There are close on 250 in the train--Cho Tae Ick, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea to Russia; Kim Han Kyung, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; political and cultural activists, scholars, business people, journalists and student spokesmen.

The train has stopped on its way in the major provincial centres Khabarovsk, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg. To make 11,000 kilometres across Russia from the Pacific coast to the Baltic within two weeks, it is expected in St. Petersburg, July 30.

The trip is intended to bring firsthand information about the economic potential and developmental prospects of Russia's many parts. The delegates and their hosts together arranged several political, economic and cultural events.

A number of investment projects were introduced during the journey. Thus, South Korea spokesmen confirmed their country's resolution to take part in the development of the Kovykta gasfield in the Irkutsk Region's north (Siberia) and gas mainline laying from that area to Asia and Pacific countries.