S.Korea begins unloading coal shipped from Russia via N.Korea

South Korea today (Monday) began unloading coal imported from Russia's southeastern city of Khasan via the North Korean port of Rajin last week.

It was the first time for South Korea to bring in Russian coal through a North Korean port.

The 45,000-ton coal on a Chinese ship arrived in the waters off South Korea's southeast port of Pohang on Sunday, in a pilot run of the so-called Rajin-Khasan project.

The project is part of a trilateral trade agreement among the two Koreas and Russia, proposed at the South Korea-Russia presidential summit in November 2013.

Under the project, a new 54-kilometer (33.5-mile) railway between Khasan and Rajin is used to transport Russian coal before its loading at the North Korean port.