Reuters.com North Korea approves historic rail border crossing http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSSEO28612120070511
Fri May 11, 2007 By Jon Herskovitz SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's military signed off on Friday to a deal allowing the first trains to cross its heavily armed border with the South in more than 50 years, which Seoul sees as a milestone in reconciliation. The two Koreas, still technically at war, plan to send two passenger trains across the border -- one starting from the North and the other from the South -- next week for the first crossing since their fratricidal 1950-1953 conflict. "The railway between the two Koreas will by re-connected for the first time in more than 50 years by providing (a) military security guarantee for the scheduled May 17 train run," South Korea's Defense Ministry said in a statement. The North only agreed to a one-off test run and extended the military talks for an extra day, mainly over a squabble in a joint statement where Pyongyang pressed for increased fishing rights in disputed waters on the west of the peninsula. South Korea, which is fearful of the estimated hundreds of billions of dollars it would cost to eventually unify with its impoverished neighbor, has sought a series of projects with the North to help gradually bring the two together. The South has built an industrial park it sees as a model of economic cooperation just north of the border where its companies use cheap North Korean land and labor to make goods. It has also built two rail crossings. One is on the east coast near a mountain resort in North Korea already visited by over 1 million South Koreans and run by an affiliate of its Hyundai Group. The other is about 60 km (40 miles) northwest of Seoul and runs near the industrial park. Seoul wants to use the rail crossings to develop these projects and eventually take passengers and cargo across North Korea and into China and Russia. The South has already constructed elaborate but now cavernous and idle stations near the border. North Korea's military, fearful of increased contacts between the isolated state and the outside world, blocked a planned train run last year. To entice the North to allow the crossing, South Korea has offered some $80 million in aid for its light industries. Tracks run from the South and into the North with compatible gauges, but the North's trains operate on an archaic system mostly built during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule. It needs a complete overhaul in order to work with the South's modern and automated system, experts said. (With additional reporting by Rhee So-eui) © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
