OREANDA-NEWS. December 1, 2011. As part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Gazprom and the North Korean Oil Industry Ministry, the first meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) took place today in Moscow.

The meeting was moderated by the JWG co-chairpersons – Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Jeong Cheol Yong, Deputy Oil Industry Minister for Production and Foreign Economic Relations.

The meeting addressed the joint efforts aimed at arranging pipeline gas supplies from Russia to the Korean Peninsula as well as other issues of mutual interest.
Based on the meeting results, the experts were charged with the relevant tasks.
Background

In August 2011 Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation and Kim Jong-Il, Chairman of the North Korean National Defense Commission came to the agreement concerning the project for natural gas supplies from Russia to the Korean Peninsula via a pipeline.

In pursuance of the senior officials' agreement, Gazprom and the North Korean Oil Industry Ministry signed the Memorandum of Understanding on September 15, 2011. According to the Memorandum, the parties set up the Joint Working Group to deal with the bilateral cooperation issues including the arrangement of practical activities within the project for natural gas supplies from Russia to the Korean Peninsula.