Geopolitic: North and South Korea

Trains cross divided Korean Peninsula

MUNSAN, South Korea: Trains crossed the border between North and South Korea on Thursday for the first time in 56 years, in what was hailed by both sides as a milestone for reconciliation on the divided Korean Peninsula.

As white balloons soared into a blue sky, soldiers swung open barbed-wire-topped gates shortly after noon to let a five-car South Korean train enter North Korea. It entered through the 4-kilometer-wide, or 2.5-mile-wide, demilitarized zone, the world's most heavily armed border.

At the same time, 240 kilometers to the east, a North Korean train trundled down the coast.

Although these were one-time test runs on two short stretches of railway that were linked through the demilitarized zone several years ago, they were highly symbolic to Koreans. No train had crossed the border since the last trains carrying refugees and wounded soldiers arrived in South Korea from the north during the Korean War in 1951.

For decades here, in South Korean postcards and school textbooks, the bullet-scarred, rusting hulks of wartime locomotives trapped in the demilitarized zone have symbolized a divided Korea and a conflict that has never been formally ended.

North Korea and South Korea are still technically at war - the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

"These are not just test runs," Unification Minister Lee Jae Joung of South Korea said. "They mean reconnecting the severed bloodline of the Korean nation." He spoke during a ceremony at Munsan Station, 12 kilometers south of the demilitarized zone. "The trains carry our dream of peace."

His North Korean counterpart, Kwon Ho Ung, who was also in Munsan, said the trains represented the "Korean nation's wish to gallop to the destination of reunification," despite what he called outside forces - apparently a reference to the United States - that are "not happy with reconciliation among Koreans."

The major television networks in South Korea broadcast the event live.

The South Korean train, carrying 150 people from both sides of the border, pulled out of Munsan around 11:30 a.m. as fireworks exploded overhead. It traveled 27 kilometers to Gaesong, a North Korean border town where South Korea runs factories employing workers from the North, where labor is less costly than in the South. The North Korean train, which also carried passengers from both sides of the border, made a similar journey, traveling between the Diamond Mountain resort and Jejin, 40 kilometers to the south.

South Korea has long dreamed of building a trans-Korea railroad that would connect its train network to China and to the Trans-Siberian Railway in the former Soviet Union, creating a so-called Iron Silk Road.

North Korea blocks overland access to Asia, which makes South Koreans "feel as if we live in an island," the South Korean transportation minister, Lee Yong Sup, said Wednesday.

A trans-Korea railroad would offer a faster and cheaper way for South Korea to bring exports that are now shipped by sea to China and Europe. It would also provide a shortcut for Russian oil and other natural resources transported to South Korea. Such a rail system would save South Korea $34 to $50 a ton in shipping costs, said Lim Jae Kyung, a researcher at the Korea Transport Institute.

But before the dream of a trans-Korea rail system comes true, transportation analysts and government officials say, years of confidence-building talks and billions of dollars in investment in North Korea's decrepit rail system will be needed.

Officials acknowledge that such a dream will not be made real until after North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons and improves its human rights record. Those moves would help build public support in South Korea for large investments across the border and would open the way for international development aid.

Six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs have been stalled for months. Doubts persist over whether Pyongyang will give up its weapons program in return for economic aid and diplomatic recognition from Washington.

"I cannot understand why we should give rice, flour, fertilizer and everything else the North Koreans want when they don't do anything for us," said Hong Moo Sun, 71, one of a dozen South Koreans protesting just outside Munsan Station on Thursday.

The protesters were calling for North Korea to return their relatives. Hundreds of South Korean fishermen, described by the North as defectors, were taken to the North in the years following the war.

Several who have returned have said that they had been held against their will.

Members of the Grand National Party, part of the conservative opposition, called the event Thursday a "train of illusion" - the event, they said, appeared to draw voters' attention in an election year.

South Korean officials say a trans-Korea railroad would invigorate inter-Korean trade, which tripled from $430 million in 2000 to $1.35 billion last year.

It would also bring cash to North Korea, which could collect an estimated $150 million a year in transit fees from trains that pass through its territory, Lim, the researcher, said.

But it is unclear whether or when North Korea might agree to regular train service across the border.

Procuring international aid to renovate the rail network and letting trains from one of Asia's most vibrant economies, carrying exports and tourists, rumble through its isolated territory could threaten the North Korean regime, analysts and others say. North Korea now relies on keeping its people ignorant of the outside world to maintain its totalitarian grip on power, those analysts add.

Both Koreas agreed in 2000 to reconnect their rail systems, which had been severed by aerial bombing during the war. It took three years to relink the tracks on the west and east ends of the border.

After four more years of haggling and delays, the North Korean military agreed this month to allow one-time test runs.

The agreement came after South Korea promised to send North Korea 400,000 tons of rice, as well as $80 million worth of raw materials for shoes, soap and textiles.

South Korea has spent 544.5 billion won, or $589 million, on reconnecting the rail system, including 180 billion won worth of equipment, tracks and other material loaned to North Korea.

South Korean policy makers have called for patience in working toward reconciliation with the North. They have often been accused by conservative politicians and civic groups of giving in to North Korea's strategy of extracting economic aid for every step toward reconciliation.

"This is a precious first step for a 1,000-mile journey," Lee, the unification minister, said Thursday.

Source: By Choe Sang-Hun - Thursday, May 17, 2007 - The International Herald Tribune