SEOUL, Apr 23 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea decided to launch the construction of the southern section of the inter-Korean railway, along the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.
The inter-Korean exchange and cooperation consultative committee was chaired by Unification Minister, Kim Yeon-chul, deciding to start the re-connection of a 110.9-km railway from the eastern coastal city of Gangneung to the border town of Jejin, local media reported today.
It will be pursued speedily without a preliminary feasibility study, as it was designated as an inter-Korean cooperative project.
The Gangneung-Jejin railroad is the South Korean section of the Donghae Bukbu Line, which was built during the 1910-1945 Japanese colonisation of the peninsula, but was severed during the 1950-1953 Korean War.
The Donghae Bukbu Line construction project was pursued since 2000, and South Korean President, Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), agreed in their first summit on Apr 27, 2018, to reconnect inter-Korean railways and roads, along the eastern and western peninsula.
South Korea and the DPRK held a groundbreaking ceremony for the inter-Korean railway re-connection project in Dec, 2018, but construction works had been delayed amid the international sanctions towards Pyongyang.
The Moon government hoped to re-link the railways across the inter-Korean border, eventually connected to Europe through the Trans-China Railway (TCR) and the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR).– NNN-YONHAP
