P
Patriot Games
Guest
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316386,00.html
First Cargo Train Service Begins Between North and South Korea
Monday, December 10, 2007
DORASAN STATION, South Korea - The first cargo train providing regular
service across the border between the two Koreas in more than a half-century
left Tuesday for the North. The 12-car train carrying construction materials
will cross through the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone dividing the
peninsula on its journey to the North Korean border city of Kaesong, where
the two Koreas operate a joint industrial zone. It was to cross back later
Tuesday.
The service is one of the tangible results of an October summit between
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun that
outlined a series of joint projects. It comes months after the two sides
conducted a one-time test run of passenger trains on two reconnected tracks
on the western and eastern sides of the peninsula.
The cargo train will make a 10-mile round trip every weekday to North Korea.
It remains unclear whether regular passenger train service will start
anytime soon, but one of the train's engineers was hopeful Tuesday.
"I expect a day will come when South Koreans visit North Korean tourist
attractions freely by train," Shin Jang-chul, whose parents are from what is
now North Korea, told reporters before departing.
South Korea hopes the inter-Korean railway will ultimately be linked through
North Korea to Russia's Trans-Siberian railroad and allow an overland route
connecting the peninsula to Europe - significantly cutting delivery times
for freight that now requires sea transport.
The cargo rail service is likely to give a further boost to the sprawling
Kaesong complex, which marries South Korean technology and management
expertise with North Korea's cheap labor.
Currently, 64 South Korean companies operate factories there, employing
about 21,600 North Korean workers and producing a range of goods including
watches, clothing and shoes.
South Korea hopes the Kaesong project will encourage isolated North Korea to
reform its centrally controlled economy and eventually open up to the
outside world.
The rail lines between the Koreas were severed shortly after the outbreak of
the 1950 Korean War. The conflict ended in a 1953 cease-fire that has never
been replaced by a peace treaty, leaving the sides technically at war.
Already, dozens of cars, trucks and buses regularly cross the border between
the two Koreas via reconnected roads both to the Kaesong complex and also to
a tourism resort at North Korea's Diamond Mountain.
The transport links between North and South were reconnected after the
first-ever summit between leaders of the divided nation in 2000.
First Cargo Train Service Begins Between North and South Korea
Monday, December 10, 2007
DORASAN STATION, South Korea - The first cargo train providing regular
service across the border between the two Koreas in more than a half-century
left Tuesday for the North. The 12-car train carrying construction materials
will cross through the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone dividing the
peninsula on its journey to the North Korean border city of Kaesong, where
the two Koreas operate a joint industrial zone. It was to cross back later
Tuesday.
The service is one of the tangible results of an October summit between
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun that
outlined a series of joint projects. It comes months after the two sides
conducted a one-time test run of passenger trains on two reconnected tracks
on the western and eastern sides of the peninsula.
The cargo train will make a 10-mile round trip every weekday to North Korea.
It remains unclear whether regular passenger train service will start
anytime soon, but one of the train's engineers was hopeful Tuesday.
"I expect a day will come when South Koreans visit North Korean tourist
attractions freely by train," Shin Jang-chul, whose parents are from what is
now North Korea, told reporters before departing.
South Korea hopes the inter-Korean railway will ultimately be linked through
North Korea to Russia's Trans-Siberian railroad and allow an overland route
connecting the peninsula to Europe - significantly cutting delivery times
for freight that now requires sea transport.
The cargo rail service is likely to give a further boost to the sprawling
Kaesong complex, which marries South Korean technology and management
expertise with North Korea's cheap labor.
Currently, 64 South Korean companies operate factories there, employing
about 21,600 North Korean workers and producing a range of goods including
watches, clothing and shoes.
South Korea hopes the Kaesong project will encourage isolated North Korea to
reform its centrally controlled economy and eventually open up to the
outside world.
The rail lines between the Koreas were severed shortly after the outbreak of
the 1950 Korean War. The conflict ended in a 1953 cease-fire that has never
been replaced by a peace treaty, leaving the sides technically at war.
Already, dozens of cars, trucks and buses regularly cross the border between
the two Koreas via reconnected roads both to the Kaesong complex and also to
a tourism resort at North Korea's Diamond Mountain.
The transport links between North and South were reconnected after the
first-ever summit between leaders of the divided nation in 2000.
