Han is on the first leg of his 10-day tour of Central Asia which will also take him to Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan with the aim of securing stable access to resources and increasing cooperation in the energy sector.

The amount is about nine percent of Korea's annual consumption of uranium which totals 4,000 tons. Korea has been importing uranium mostly from Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan, the United States and France.

Meanwhile, Korea's state-run Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS) signed a contract with its Uzbek counterpart, Uzbeknefgaz, on joint exploration of oil and gas fields in the Chust, Namangan and Uzunkui regions of the natural resource-rich Central Asian country.

Under the contract, Korea will establish a 50-50 joint venture with Uzbekistan for exploration and development of oil and gas fields in the regions.

The oil reserves at the fields in Namangan and Chust are estimated at 435 million barrels and 380 million barrels, respectively. Uzunkui has an estimated gas reserve of 190 million barrels.

In the premiers' meeting, the two sides also agreed that Korea has the exclusive right for the coming six months to explore the A-District of the Amu Darya region, location of the largest Uzbek oil fields.

They also concurred that Korea and Uzbekistan will jointly develop molybdenum and tungsten mines in the region, 150 kilometers west of Samarkand.

In addition, the sides signed memorandums of understanding for cooperation in joint development of energy and parts, establishment of an industrial park exclusively for Korean businesses in Tashkent, redevelopment of the center of the Uzbek capital and modernization of an airport in the city.

"The signing of the MOUs enables us to get access to core aerospace, parts and precision processing technologies developed by the former Soviet Union," a Korean official accompanying Premier Han said.

Korea agreed to provide $120 million in economic aid to Uzbekistan in the coming years. Seoul will also grant aid to the Central Asian country for improvement of medical facilities and residential areas.

This article appeared on www.korea.net

May 13, 2008

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