SEOUL, September 5. /TASS/. South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said in an interview with TASS’ First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman ahead of his visit to Russia he hopes his visit will help him establish friendly relations with the Russian leader.

The South Korean president will take part in the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok on September 6-7 and will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I hope this visit to Russia will help me establish sincere relations of friendship and trust with President Putin, as well as consolidate top-level strategic partnership," said Moon Jae-in. "I hope this visit will help us bring our cooperation up to a qualitatively new level."

According to the South Korean leader, he has set a kind of record. "I am going to Russia just four months after taking office, the shortest period among all previous South Korea’s presidents," he said and thanked Putin for his invitation.

Among the priority issues he plans to discuss in Russia, Moon Jae-in cited possibilities for economic cooperation. "I think in future we will be able together to reach major progress in the development of such spheres as infrastructure and logistics, including joint development of the Northern Sea Route," he said, adding that other promising cooperation areas may include the development of railway transport, ports, shipbuilding, agriculture, fishing, healthcare and medicine.

"And, naturally, along with all mentioned above, I would like to speak with President Putin about security on the Korean Peninsula, about efforts to make it nuclear-free again. It is in Russia’s vital interests as well," the South Korean leader underscored.