South Korea and Uzbekistan reached deals on energy

SEOUL, Mar 29: South Korea and Uzbekistan reached deals on energy and discussed human rights today during a visit of the embattled Uzbek president, who has seen his relations with the West deteriorate following a bloody crackdown.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Uzbek President Islam Karimov reached deals that would help resource-poor South Korea secure more oil and gas.

The deals also fit into the Central Asian country's push to boost business ties outside of the West.

Karimov has made few overseas trips after the crackdown on dissent last year in which witnesses said hundreds of civilians were killed, something the government denies.

South Korea's state-run Gas Corp, (KOGAS) signed preliminary deals with Uzbekistan's state gas and oil firm to develop gas fields with estimated reserves of 275 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas equivalent of natural gas, the presidential Blue House and KOGAS said in statements.

The state-run Korea National Oil Corp. signed two separate deals with the Uzbek energy firm to explore two oil fields in Uzbekistan, the Blue House said in a statement.

South Korea's state-run Resources Corporation and Uzbek geological commission also signed an agreement to explore gold deposits, the Blue House said.

Karimov's visit comes against the backdrop of Roh's drive to secure energy sources for the world's 11th biggest economy.

South Korea also hopes ties with the Uzbek government will boost the status of more than 200,000 ethnic Koreans there, the largest in any former Soviet state.

Many of the Koreans were living in the Rusian Far East and were relocated to Central Asia by Soviet leaders in the late 1930s who thought the Koreans could be working for the Japanese, who ruled the Korean peninsula.

REUTERS