Korea Times
Jung Sung-ki
11/19/2007
South Korea is considering directly supplying electricity to Anbyeon on North Korea’s east coast, where a South Korean-funded ship block plant is to be constructed next year, to help ease the power shortage there, a government source said Monday.
“The government has concluded after a recent on-site inspection that without resolving the electricity issue, the plan to build a shipbuilding complex (in Anbyeon) would not be successful,” the source said, asking not to be named.
“So the government is considering taking the initiative to resolve the problem, so that the private sector can stably invest in the inter-Korean business program,” he said.
The two Koreas are to break ground for a shipyard in Anbyeon, Gangwon Province, during the first half of next year as part of large-scale cross-border economic projects agreed upon at the second inter-Korean summit last month.
A group of South Korean officials and shipbuilding businessmen visited the town early this month.
South Koreas plans to propose North Korea the option of a direct supply of electricity next month when a second inspection team visits Anbyeon, the source added.
Experts say the project will cost a sizable amount.
It will require hundreds of billions of won to build steel pipes, transmitters and transmission roads from the northeastern town of Goseong in the South to Anbyeon, a 130-kilometer route, they say.
In case of the Kaeseong Industrial Complex, just a few kilometers north of the inter-Korean border, South Korea spent 35 billion won ($38 million) to build electricity supplying facilities.
The electricity supply will require consultation with countries involving in multinational talks aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear ambition, as energy aid is one of the key incentives for the communist state in return for its denuclearization efforts.
The two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia have engaged in six-party talks to scrap North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
