Russia has been negotiating deals to provide electricity to North and South Korea, a Russian official said, although the talks are now in jeopardy because of U.N. Security Council sanctions against the communist nation, AP reports.

The two projects, being proposed by the Far Eastern department of Russia’s electricity monopoly RAO Unified Energy Systems, would help meet the North’s dire need for electricity to bolster its sagging economy plagued by endemic shortages, while also providing energy-hungry South Korea with power for its bustling economy.

The plans would also create a way to bring the divided Koreas together on a joint electricity project, while leaving the power switch in the hands of an outside country whose main concern would be keeping the venture going to reap the financial reward.

“In my opinion, this project could be attractive commercially, technologically and in terms of increasing security. It could introduce a certain amount of stability into the situation on the peninsula,” UES deputy board chairman Leonid Drachevsky told The Associated Press.

Drachevsky said the original idea for the project had been proposed by South Korea and based on current electricity prices would require investment of at least $2 billion.

“At the moment this is at the level of ideas. We haven’t got as far as the details,” he said. However, Drachevsky confirmed the deal had been under consideration for some time.

“This idea didn’t come about today and it didn’t come about yesterday,” he said.

South Korea last year offered to provide electricity directly to the North to help resolve the nuclear standoff with Pyongyang. But it’s believed the North would be highly reluctant to leave control of its power grid at the whim of Seoul and dependent on the state of relations on the peninsula — despite South Korea’s assurances that it wouldn’t unilaterally pull the plug.

Last year, on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit at a meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia and South Korea, a printed agenda seen by the AP included an item about Moscow’s plans for energy aid to the North. At the time, officials refused to comment directly on those plans.

Russian officials discussed the plans in early October with high-ranking South Korean officials in Seoul.

An official at South Korea’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said only that South Korean and Russian officials agreed on “the need to expand cooperation in the electricity field” during their meeting in Seoul last month.

But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t the ministry’s official spokesman, said no details were discussed at the working-level meeting.

One problem would be that the Russians want North Korea to pay in cash — something Pyongyang doesn’t have to spare.

The South Koreans, with their deep pockets and hunger for energy, could pay the North Koreans transit fees for the electricity lines running to the South.

“If you had transit (through North Korea), then of course there is interest in supplying North Korea,” said Drachevsky.

The Russian electricity for South Korea would simply pass through the North, without any generation capacity located in North Korea itself. The lines would be elevated high above ground, meaning the only way to stop the electricity would simply be to blow up the support poles, a person close to the negotiations told the AP in Seoul.

However, the North Koreans would be very reluctant to do anything to prevent electricity from passing through their territory, because that would anger Russia and also mean they would forfeit the transit fees.

The power being provided to the North would be on a separate line, because the North’s power grid operates differently than the South.

The U.N. sanctions imposed after the North’s Oct. 9 test have placed the plans in doubt. Any new projects are on hold because of escalated tensions in the region, and providing electricity to the North would obviously be something that could be dual-use — and possibly go to supporting the country’s military along with missile or nuclear programs, which is banned under the sanctions.

Drachevsky noted the sanctions could delay the plans, but wasn’t ready to dismiss the proposal altogether. “I don’t think (sanctions) will be eternal,” he said.

Popularity: 2% [?]