Yul Kwon:
To give us some additional insight into the reasons for Kim Jong-il's visit, I'm joined today by Abraham Kim. He's vice president of the Korea Economic Institute, a research institute that focuses on US-South Korea relations. Thanks for joining us today, Abe.

Abraham Kim:
Thank you for having me.

Yul Kwon:
So give us some context as to the purpose of the visit, and why is it happening now?

Abraham Kim:
One of the reasons why Kim Jong-il went to Russia is because of economic reasons. He needs Russia for investment, for trade, and even foreign assistance. But the primary reason why he went is for political reasons. Kim Jong-il is prepared to come back to the six-party talks to talk about his nuclear program. And in fact, one of the significant announcements that he made was that he was ready to freeze his nuclear program as well as his missile program. But the US and South Korea are not ready to come unless Kim Jong-il is ready to make substantive movement towards de-nuclearization. They're not willing to just talk for the sake of talk. But Kim Jong-il needs to get back to the six-party talks to attract international concessions and to open up North Korea to the international community.

Yul Kwon:
Why is that important now? Why did North Korea walk away from the six-party talks in the first place, and why are they so desperate to resume those talks now?

Abraham Kim:
Well, in terms of the timing and why it's so important, is because next year 2012 is an important year for North Korea. First of all, it is the late Kim Il-sung's 100th birthday. But second of all, it is a celebration of the "Great and Prosperous" campaign in North Korea. And during that time, the government had promised the people that they would be politically strong, strong in security, as well as strong in economics.

Yul Kwon:
Is that why there's been interest in openness on Kim Jong-il's part towards opening up a gas pipeline?

Abraham Kim:
Yes, that's one of the reasons. They see this gas pipeline as an opportunity to open up a gas pipeline from Russia to South Korea. And by allowing this pipeline to go over North Korea, they can get about 100 million dollars a year. And so they see this as a tremendous opportunity.

Yul Kwon:
Do you think this pipeline is actually going to happen?

Abraham Kim:
Well, I think right now we have to be a bit cautious. There have been cases in the past where they have promised large infrastructure projects or joint-venture projects, and some have been successful like the Kumgangsan tourism area and the Kaesong Industrial Complex. But as we saw from last week, with the closing down of the Kumgangsan tourism area by the expropriation by the North Koreans of that zone, that these are very risky. And in order for South Korea to allow North Korea to have control over these pipelines is a risky prospect for the South Korean government.

Yul Kwon:
So for the South Korean government, the question from them is, why would they invest if there's no guarantee that at some point in the future North Korea is not going to use that as sort of a hostage to gain additional leverage?

Abraham Kim:
Exactly. So from the South Korean perspective, there's also that problem, as well as with South Korea being so dependent on energy, this will only over time give North Korea greater and greater leverage as they become more dependent on energy from abroad.

Yul Kwon:
You're one of the few people in the world who was able to go to North Korea and actually see what's going on in the streets. Was there anything that you came across that surprised you?

Abraham Kim:
Well, I think one of the reasons we went to North Korea is to see the efficacy of sanctions. And clearly sanctions are not working. If you walk the streets, for example, you see a lot of luxury cars from abroad. Mercedes Benz, Lexus, BMW, even American cars.

Yul Kwon:
Who can afford these in North Korea?

Abraham Kim:
Well, clearly the elites are driving these cars, but the fact that these cars are coming into North Korea despite the sanctions is certainly a surprise to all of us. The other thing that we saw also is we went to a lot of universities and libraries, and in these libraries, there are computers, but they're all made from America. HP, Dell computers, which was quite surprising as well.

Yul Kwon:
And what about their communications infrastructure?

Abraham Kim:
Well, that was another important observation that we saw. As we know, back in 2008, they opened up their wireless market to the elites, essentially, and an Egyptian company called Orascom is building the wireless infrastructure in North Korea. And currently as of earlier this year, they had about 530,000 subscribers. But we had some conversations with the Orascom executives there, and they said no, no, it's more like 600,000 now. But also the surprising thing that we saw was that he had an iPad with him, and he was checking the internet on it. And we said, wow, you can get Internet access.

Yul Kwon:
Was he Googling himself?

Abraham Kim:
Well, he was actually checking his email. So he explained that the infrastructure is 3G, and they're developing a SIM card that you can put into your iPad, for example, to get internet access.

Yul Kwon:
That's astounding.

Abraham Kim:
But of course obviously the next question is: isn't the government concerned about this kind of access? But in fact he told us that the government is actually supporting this development.

Yul Kwon:
Why is that? Because we've seen in other countries, where dictatorships have been toppled because people have access to things like social media, which allows them to get additional information and to self-organize. Why wouldn't the North Korean leadership be threatened by that?

Abraham Kim:
I think the North Korean leadership is allowing this development because obviously they're controlling it and only allowing the elites to have access to it. But they're also interested in moving the country into the 21st century, and part of that strategy is developing out the IT industry. And so they're inviting companies like Orascom to help them move toward that direction.

Yul Kwon:
Thanks so much, Abe. I really appreciate your time.

Abraham Kim:
Thank you.

Yul Kwon:
That was Abe Kim, vice president of the Korea Economic Institute in Washington, DC.