KHASAN, RUSSIA: ON NORTH KOREA'S DOORSTEP

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VLADIVOSTOK 000106 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON RS KN KS CH SUBJECT: KHASAN, RUSSIA: ON NORTH KOREA'S DOORSTEP VLADIVOSTO 00000106 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (U) Summary: After months of meetings and diplomatic notes, the Consulate received permission for a day trip to Khasan, Russia's only border crossing point with North Korea. Khasan is a small settlement where North Korea, Russia, and China meet. The permission for the October 22 trip did extend to the tri-country marker, or the "Friendship Bridge" between Russia and North Korea, but it did allow us to approach to within 400 meters of North Korean territory. For Russians too, Khasan is a closed area, requiring special permission. For the most part, the border is quiet, but twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, North Korean workers disembark from a one-wagon train for onward assignment to labor in Russia's forests, construction sites, and fish processing factories. Train tickets from North Korea's town of Tumangan to Khasan cost just under five dollars. Khasan has rail links with all of Russia. End summary. FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE TO NOWHERE -------------- ¶2. (U) On most world maps, Vladivostok appears tucked right into Northern China and North Korea. In reality, Russia, North Korea and China come together in Khasan, some 295 kilometers by car from Vladivostok on the other side of Amur Bay. In winter, locals take the shortcut across the bay on the ice. On this trip, CG stayed on the sometimes paved road, driving through the Barabash leopard territory, across numerous salmon streams and rivers, including the "Amba" or Tiger, and past abandoned military outposts to reach the Khasan settlement. The trip goes through some of the most pristine area in Primorye, where endangered leopards and tigers still roam freely and swans, ducks and cranes can be seen in local waterways; however, it is also a corridor for potential new development, including oil and gas pipelines and a planned new highway. ¶3. (U) If globalization is the free flow of goods, labor, and capital, then Khasan represents only a glimmer of the possibilities. North Korean laborers do come through here, but the flow of goods from Russia to North Korea is greatly reduced from the Soviet-North Korean heyday in the 1980's. On a trip here four years ago, Consulate staff saw Russian logs being shipped to North Korea, but the railroad administrator told us that few Russian goods were being sent to North Korea now. Tourism is also quite restricted coming into Russia here from North Korea and China, although Khasan Administrator Ivan Vladimirovich Stepanov can imagine his settlement having a hotel with a bar and sauna. Not that many North Koreans could afford to enjoy it. Stepanov said living conditions in North Korea were "awful" and he did not know frankly how people could survive with "no electricity, nothing." Russian tourists can purchase a seven day tour in North Korea for just under $500 for a seven day stay on the seashore. At Khasan, Chinese tourists with binoculars could be spotted on an observation tower on the Chinese side of the border, but there was no car or foot traffic across the "Friendship Bridge" between Russia and North Korea. WAITING FOR A "BOOM" -------------- ¶4. (U) While China meets Russia in Khasan, the nearest Russia-China border crossing is at Kraskino, on the way to Khasan. There, a new shopping center has been built by the Chinese neighboring city of Kunshun. It is a newly painted three story pink building, but locals said it was closed and replied with a shrug when asked when it would open. As for Russian business in North Korea, it was interesting to hear Stepanov say that Russian businessmen find doing business there quite risky, with Russians having transferred money to Korean partners that "disappears," a problem that has plagued American businesses in the Far East as well. Khasan shows little benefit from being a border town. In fact, American influence was as prevalent as Chinese or North Korean, with one shop named "Texas" and a car sporting the logo "In God We Trust" on the back window. The 800 Khasan residents (down from 1200 in Soviet days) rely on jobs with the railroad or Customs, and in fact, those are the jobs that Khasan high school students identified to the CG as being most desirable upon graduation. ¶5. (U) Out-migration of youth is another serious problem in Khasan as it is throughout the Russian Far East. Among the students was a bright Korean girl who asked good questions in Russian and turned out to be the daughter of the North Korean Consul. She also spoke some English. Her father's position must no doubt be designed to keep tabs on the comings and goings of the North Korean laborers whose movements in Russia are "controlled." The railroad has built handsome new townhouses on a hill overlooking the rail station and the school and station itself are in good repair. The Rail Station was built especially for North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's first visit to VLADIVOSTO 00000106 002.2 OF 002 Russia in 2001. Housing for the rest of the settlement remains Khasan Administrator Stepanov's biggest problem. The "Khrushchev" apartment buildings where most people live are in dire need of repair. Stepanov says he was attracted to Khasan 20 years ago from Moscow's suburbs by the hunting and fishing. But he follows North Korea's news closely, including the six-party talks, and says he hopes there will someday be a "boom" of activity when and if things normalize in North Korea. He is also hoping some of the federal money set aside for Far East development for APEC in 2012 will come his way, but he is doubtful. LIGHTLY MILITARIZED -------------- ¶6. (U) North Korean workers left several recent copies of the North Korean publications "Korea" and "Korea Today," both printed in Russian in the Khasan rail station. There is a page one article on former President Clinton's visit, as well as photographs of alleged Japanese atrocities during the Second World War. On the walls, placards in Korean advised travelers on weight restrictions for luggage and other travel details. Khasan was the site of Soviet and Japanese fighting in 1938 and there is a monument on the hill overlooking China and North Korea to the two thousand Soviet soldiers who died defending this territory. The border today appears to be lightly militarized. There is an unobtrusive Russian outpost off to the side of the border with a fairly large radar array. No Chinese or North Korean troops are visible from the Russian side. A Russian museum, dedicated to the "Heroes of Khasan" was removed in fact because it contained weapons, albeit museum pieces, and was within an area that all sides have agreed should be demilitarized. ¶7. (U) Comment: Khasan and Kraskino have promise as border towns with millions of possible Chinese tourists and customers at their doorstep, but the potential has been there for years, with little or no movement. We suspect a trip to Khasan ten years from now will find conditions to be much the same, unless Vladivostok's APEC Summit in 2012 represents a real turnaround with respect to Russia's attitude towards engagement with its neighbors and a similar and even more dramatic reversal on North Korea's part. More optimistically, if Korea were to be a united and free country, Khasan could find itself on a major East-West corridor, and Administrator Stepanov could have his hotel, bar and sauna. ARMBRUSTER