Lee 'positively assesses' N. Korean leader's trip to Russia

ULAN BATOR, Aug. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak "positively assesses" North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's ongoing trip to Russia as such a visit could help the isolated communist nation reform and open up to the outside world, his spokesman said. The North's leader has been on a trip to Russia since Saturday. Kim toured a hydroelectric power plant in eastern Siberia's Amur region on Sunday before leaving for Ulan-Ude, the third-largest city in eastern Siberia, for summit talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. It was his first trip to Russia since 2002. In Ulan Bator, Lee said that he "positively assesses" the North Korean leader's trip, presidential spokesman Park Jeong-ha said. Lee arrived in the Mongolian capital on Sunday night as part of a three-nation Central Asian tour that also includes stops in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. "The president believes that if the North's leader goes abroad and sees an open society, it would have a positive impact on North Korea's economic development," the spokesman said. "It is against this backdrop that he said he positively assesses the trip." South Korea and Russia are in close cooperation over Kim's visit, the spokesman said.