Kim Jong-un says he wants to pass gas

... to south Korea, that is.

From Bloomberg:

North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong Un, supports an agreement to build a natural-gas pipeline from Russia to South Korea via his communist state, the Russian envoy in Pyongyang said.

“All these existing agreements are supported by the new leadership in North Korea,” Russian Ambassador Valery Sukhinin said in a phone interview today from the North Korean capital. “Talks now are taking place between the parties implementing the project, from our side Gazprom, and from the North Korean side, the oil industry ministry.” OAO Gazprom is the state-run Russian gas-export monopoly.

Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, who died in December, agreed to the gas pipeline at a meeting in August with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev near the Siberian city of Ulan-Ude. Russia said the energy deal was part of efforts to win concessions on North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program.

Cue juvenile farting joke here...

It's been a while since we've talked about the natural gas pipeline that Russian and South Korean leaders want to lay through North Korea, but apparently the Prodigious Progeny is renewing the prospect. And just in time for annual begging-for-food season.

Too bad, for the sake of North Koreans in the lower echelons of society, we can't bring Juneuary to the DPRK.

Anyway, for my thoughts on the wisdom of having such a pipeline (or lack thereof) see here, here, and here. Of course, it's a somewhat different discussion now that Kim Jong-un is in charge: Could construction of a pipeline and the international agreements necessary to build it and maintain it be what is needed to coax North Korea from isolation, or is there still high potential that the Pyongyang regime will use the threat of cutting off the gas supply as a means of squeezing out concessions from Seoul, as they would have done under Kim Jong-il?

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Kim and Medvedev want to lay some pipe; Will they get stopcock-blocked by Kim Jong-il?

Bedfellows. 

As I've previously noted, I've been rather busy lately. It's very time-consuming finding stories for the Los Angeles Times weeks or months before they appear in print. Like this one:

For newfound economic bedfellows South Korea and Russia, the biggest question over a proposed natural gas pipeline is a dark twist on the famous line from "Field of Dreams": If you build it, will North Korea mess with it?

South Korea President Lee Myung-bak this week met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in St. Petersburg to discuss a project to pipe Siberian natural gas to the Korean peninsula.

The project faces numerous barriers beyond the region’s frigid cold, namely that North Korean strongman Kim Jong Il — whose regime would also be served by the pipeline that runs the length of the nation — could decide to use the project for political leverage, shutting down the flow of gas just to mess with Seoul.

South Korea has good reason to worry. In recent years, it has taken a harder line on sending aid to the starving masses in North Korea until that country ceases provocative acts such as two recent attacks against the South.

Kim, always the political chess player, could use the pipeline for payback of old scores with South Korea. "Look, the gas is flowing. Oops, now it’s not!"

If this all sounds familiar, I said as much over two months ago...

Pyongyang notes that the high-tech pipeline would come equipped with a money spigot that will channel cash directly into Pyongyang vaults whenever the mainline is shut off.

... and again six weeks ago when I described the pipeline as a "win-win" situation:

And by that he means that the Pyongyang regime wins if they cooperate and keep it running, and they win if they go all high-jinks brinksmanship on Seoul by shutting it off.

But seriously, it is good to know that President Lee is soberly considering what all this means. A natural gas pipeline held hostage by the North could be a disaster for the South, causing Seoul to be held hostage to the whims of Kim Jong-il or his son (Ha! Like that will ever happen!) or the ruling junta that takes over after the Dear Leader kicks the bucket.

Is this a good idea? Do we really need a pipeline through frènemy* territory? South Korea makes loads of ships that could make regular runs of natural gas from Vladivostok to Pusan, so why not ship it through the East Sea (Sea of Japan) instead?

* Frènemy: In this case, not friend+enemy, but a portmanteau of frère and enemy, with that italicized word meaning brother. Hence the accent grave [`] in frènemy. Maybe I should write it frèrnemy to avoid any confusion. 

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President Lee says gas pipeline through North Korea a win-win

And by that he means that the Pyongyang regime wins if they cooperate and keep it running, and they win if they go all high-jinks brinksmanship on Seoul by shutting it off.

Nah, just kidding. Here's what he really said.

But seriously, this can not end well.

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