Koreas break ground on railways
seoul — North and South Korea broke ground on Wednesday on an ambitious project to modernise North Korean railways and roads and connect them with the South, but without progress in nuclear negotiations, regular trains won’t be crossing the border anytime soon.
The ceremony at the North Korean border town of Kaesong came weeks after the Koreas conducted a joint survey on the northern railway sections they hope to someday link with the South. It’s one of several peace gestures agreed between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in as they push ahead with engagement amid a stalemate in larger nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.
But beyond on-site reviews and ceremonies, the Koreas cannot move much further along without the removal of US-led sanctions against the North.
A South Korean train carrying about 100 people — including government officials, lawmakers and aging relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War — rolled into the North Korean border town of Kaesong, where they were greeted by North Koreans including Ri Son Gwon, who heads an agency dealing with inter-Korean affairs.
North and South Korean officials signed a concrete railroad tie, unveiled a new signboard and observed a ceremonial connecting of northern and southern tracks at Kaesong’s Panmun Station, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
Officials from China and Russia were also invited to witness the symbolic start of an ambitious project Seoul hopes will one day link South Korea with the Trans-China and Trans-Siberian railways. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, also attended, according to the South Korean ministry.
“The railways will not only reduce time and space but also the distance between the hearts of the South and North,” South Korean transport minister Kim Hyun-mee said at the ceremony.