Deputy foreign ministers of South Korea and Russia met on Tuesday for bilateral consultations on topics including railway and logistics projects that involve North Korea, according to an official at the Russian Embassy in Seoul on Wednesday.

1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tai-young and Deputy Minister for Political Affairs Lee Kyung-soo sat down with Igor V. Morgulov, Russian deputy minister of foreign affairs, for talks along with Russian Ambassador to South Korea Konstantin Vnukov.

Lee and Morgulov pledged to lift two-way trade to $30 billion annually by 2015. They also discussed the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, and North Korean denuclearization.

During the Tuesday meeting, the two deputy ministers also talked about ways to increase South Korea’s contributions to a proposed logistics and transport project.

Russian Railways and a consortium of major South Korean companies inked an MOU in a signing ceremony attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Park Geun-hye in Seoul last November.

The deal would see South Korea investing in a Russian-led rail and port development project connecting North Korea’s northern city of Rason with Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railway.

The 54-kilometer, double-track railroad between Rajin Station in the North Korean city of Rason and Khasan Station in the nearby Russian town of Khasan reopened last year in September.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)