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May 17, 2007
Koreas hoping rail service mends fences
By Bruce Wallace
Los Angeles Times

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003710389_korea17.html

MUNSAN, South Korea -- Carrying two official delegations and lofty hopes for Korean reconciliation, two trains pulled out of stations today in North and South Korea and crossed the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on a rail link severed by war almost 60 years ago.

The two trains -- one running north, the other south, along each coast -- covered a mere 16 miles each in what was billed as a test run of tracks newly laid on the route of Korea's colonial-era railroad.

But today's short journeys have a larger symbolism, linking the two Koreas by tracks running through fields and over riverbeds once sown with land mines and between borders still bristling with weapons.

Many Koreans hope the inaugural run will lead to the eventual resumption of regular train service between the two countries. To the flash of fireworks and a blast from the diesel engine's air horn, the five-car passenger train scraped along the tracks out of Munsan Station, seven miles south of the border. On board were North Korean railway officials, South Korean politicians, peace activists and a poet.

They were sent off by a brassy military band and South Koreans waving blue-and-white unification flags. Riot police restrained a small group of protesters.

The train then made a brief stop at Dorasan Station, just before the DMZ, and then pulled away, spouting exhaust and blowing back white balloons and confetti.

South Korean officials say they need a train line to get raw materials and visitors to the 20 companies engaged in light industry at the Kaesong complex, a zone that brings together North Korean workers and South Korean capital and management. The trains could carry about 1,000 South Korean commuters a day to Kaesong, officials say, as well as ease travel for North Korean workers who commute by bus or bike.

The South also wants regular train service to boost tourist travel that carries about 6,000 South Koreans every month by bus to North Korea's Mount Kumgang resort just across the border.

North Korea has exploited it neighbor's eagerness to get the train line up and running. South Korea has already picked up the entire $600 million cost of building the line, providing all the construction materials and refurbishing the dilapidated stations along the route. Work began in 2002, with soldiers from both sides sweeping the area of landmines before laying the tracks.

The western line was completed more than five years ago. But North Koreans balked at starting the service, citing security concerns as well as unhappiness with the demarcation line between the two Koreas in the Yellow Sea that has led to a couple of bloody clashes in recent years. A similar test scheduled last year was abandoned the day the trains were supposed to run.

South Korean officials argue that the North stands to reap even greater long-term economic benefits from re-welding the rail network.