Legal Issues and Other Geopolitical Considerations Surrounding the Proposed Russian-North-South Korean Pipeline

In 1993, with the recent breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia and the Ukraine signed a promising gas supply and transit agreement that would sell subsidized Russian gas to the Ukraine for its energy needs, as well as allow Russia transit of gas across the newly independent Ukrainian pipeline in order to support Europe’s energy needs.After several years of tense disputes over pricing and supply, and an ever growing reliance by Europe and the Ukraine on the Siberian gas, the two countries reached a climax in 2011 over the dispute, resulting in a termination of transit gas access to Europe by the Ukraine and an equally austere threat by Russia to stop gas supply altogether to its Slavic neighbor. This article will examine some of the political risks associated with a gas supply and transit agreement as well as some of the tools that might be available to mitigate the risk of deliberate state action in a gas supply and transit agreement.It will also examine how the legal and geopolitical lessons of the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute might be applied to a potential Russia-North Korea-South Korea pipeline and will give a brief account of the geopolitical implications surrounding a proposed pipeline on the Korean Peninsula. This article concludes that many of the lessons from the Russia-Ukraine model can be applied to the proposed Russia-North Korea-South Korea pipeline, and that prudent planning and skilled contract drafting are necessary when considering a Russia-North Korea-South Korea pipeline. It further concludes that small but measurable steps or agreements, in the form of international arbitration membership or transparency of contracts amongst all parties involved, are worth considering, and that the idea of ‘non-vitality’ of energy needs from the pipeline should be a short-long-term goal worth considering while emphasizing social and political gains.