On November 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin came to Seoul for a very short visit on his way back from Vietnam. It was the third time the Russian leader had been in South Korea, and his second meeting with recently elected South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

It appears that Putin was in Seoul not so much for holding lengthy talks, but rather to participate in symbolic functions and sign some documents that had been prepared well in advance of his arrival. One of the agreements he signed envisions that a number of large South Korean companies will participate in the ongoing construction of a railway link between the station of Hasan on the Russian side of the short Russo-Korean border and the North Korean port city of Rason, the latter of which is now the center of North Korea’s largest SEZ.