Business transactions between North Korea and Russia have reached 3.5 billion rubles ($67 million) in value since the two countries began using the currency last October, a Russian official said.
Chairing a meeting of the Russian half of the intergovernmental commission on trade-economic and scientific-technical cooperation between Russia and the DPRK, Minister for Far East Development Alexander Galushka said the figure was an important indicator for joint cooperation.
Originally scheduled to take place last July, the move was delayed to set up the necessary financial infrastructure. Payments are now made through the OAO AKB Regional Development Bank and the DPRK’s Bank for Foreign Trade, according to a press release posted Tuesday on the Ministry for Far East Development’s website.
“Ruble transactions are helpful for North Korea, because there is always (an) under shortage of (U.S.) dollars,” Cho Han-bum, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KNU) told NK News.
The press release also says freight traffic on the Hasan railway, which connects Russia to North Korea, has reached 360,000 tons since the start of 2015. Russian railways will look to increase the figure to 1.5 million tons of cargo by the year’s end.
The press release did not, however, include figures from the previous year for comparison.
Transactions in rubles are just one of numerous initiatives recently put in place to facilitate business between Russia and the DPRK. Numerous bilateral and trilateral energy projects involving South Korea are also rumored to be in the works.
“All of these events will give additional impetus to the development of the whole complex of bilateral cooperation, as well as the implementation of trilateral projects: Russia-North Korea-South Korea,” Galushka said at the meeting.
The news comes on the same day as the deputy minister for the Ministry of Far East Development said North Korea is ready to send workers to Russia in unlimited numbers.
“There are alternative sources of labor (to Chinese workers), in particular, North Korea are willing to supply us with a workforce in unlimited quantities,” Shereikin Maxim Leonidovich said in comments carried by Ria Novosti. “Currently North Korean workers are mainly working on the timber industry, but are gradually being dispatched to the agricultural industry.”
The announcement conflicts with recent remarks from Russia’s deputy minister of science and education, who said that North Korean workers will soon have to pass a Russian language test in order to be issued a work permit.
Additional reporting by Ha Young Choi
Featured image: “Russian rubles” by Petar Milošević – Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
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