Inter-Korea Railroad To Open Across Cold War's Last Frontier

November 16, 2007 5:03 p.m. EST

Seoul, South Korea (AHN) - For the first time in more than half a century, North and South Korea agreed Friday to launch a cross-border freight train service on Dec. 11.

The inter-Korean railway will ultimately be linked to the Trans-Siberian railroad in Russia in an overland route connecting the peninsula to Europe that cuts travel time for freight now delivered by sea.

The move follows talks in Seoul until Friday between the prime ministers of the two Koreas for the first time in 15 years and a milestone summit last month between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang.

A test-run of the 16-mile (26-kilometer) track last May also marked the first train crossings over the border for more than 50 years.

The track straddles a heavily armed frontier and starts from a joint venture industrial complex in Kaesong city in the north, going south to Mundan and north to Bongdong.

About two dozen South Korean companies in Kaesong run factories employing 20,000 North Koreans and producing over $1 million worth of shoes, garments and labor-intensive goods each month.

Friday's agreement, reached after the first talks between the countries' prime ministers since 1992, also calls for the South to start building shipyards in North Korea and repairing a major highway and a railroad in its poor neighbor next year.