Russia’s ambassador to North Korea has been named as the country‘s top envoy to South Korea, diplomatic sources said Thursday, raising hopes that the move would help promote cooperative projects among the three nations.

Alexander Timonin, Russia’s top envoy to Pyongyang, is likely to replace the incumbent ambassador Konstantin Vnukov starting as early as March next year.

Timonin has had experience in dealing with trilateral cooperation among the two Koreas and Russia before he began to serve as the Russian envoy to Pyongyang in May 2012.

It would mark the first time that Russia‘s ambassador to the North will serve as the country’s top envoy to Seoul. He also worked as a minister at the Russian embassy in Seoul in the past.

As Russia has diplomatic ties with both Seoul and Pyongyang, diplomats handling the Korean Peninsula tend to be assigned into embassies in the two Koreas interchangeably.

The appointment is widely expected to help pursue cooperative projects involving the three countries, they said.

The two Koreas and Russia have been engaged in the so-called Rajin-Khasan logistics project that is designed to make the North Korean northeastern port city of Rajin a logistics hub by linking it to Russia‘s Trans-Siberian railway.

North Korea has been stepping up its diplomatic engagement with Russia as its relations with China, the North’s long-time ally, have been strained following Pyongyang‘s nuclear test last year.

Choe Ryong-hae, a special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has been on an eight-day visit to Russia that will run into Monday in an apparent bid to break from its international isolation. Choe, the Workers’ Party of Korea secretary, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. (Yonhap)