North Korea in talks with Russia: Choe Ryong-hae, until recently North Korea’s top military official, met with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow last week to discuss progress on the establishment of a transport corridor that would enable Russia to provide South Korea with gas from its Sakhalin oil and gas fields in the Sea of Okhotsk. Russia has already conducted a trial shipment of coal through the DPRK’s Rajin intermodal rail terminal and is now looking at the possibility of creating a Trans-Korean spur to the Trans-Siberian railway. ZRPress