VZCZCXRO7792
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDBU RUEHFK RUEHHM RUEHKSO RUEHLN RUEHNAG RUEHPB RUEHSK
RUEHYG
DE RUEHVK #0106/01 2960418
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 230418Z OCT 09
FM AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1221
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0290
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 0276
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0139
RUEHZU/ASIAN PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION COLLECTIVE
RUEHVK/AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 1326

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