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Two Koreas agree on cross-border train
Two Koreas agree on cross-border train
Monday December 03, 2007
North and South Korea have agreed to run a regular daily cross-border freight train service from next week for the first time in over half a century, officials said Sunday.
Negotiators from both sides on Saturday mapped out details on the rail service at talks in the North in a follow-up to their leaders' agreement, the South's unification ministry said in a statement.
President Roh Moo-Hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il agreed at a historic summit in early October to resume regular freight services, and both sides last month set December 11 for their inauguration.
The service, the first since the 1950-53 Korean War, will begin with a twice-daily border crossing by a 10-carriage cargo train, the ministry said.
The train will leave Munsan in the South at 9:00 am (0000GMT) and reach Bongdong in the North before returning to Munsan at 2:00 pm, it said.
Defence chiefs from both sides last week agreed to provide a security guarantee for the daily cross-border cargo train to run the 20-kilometre (12-mile) section of track across the heavily-fortified border.
Seoul hopes the service, which connects to Bondong near the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial estate in the North, will slash transport costs dramatically.
At present, hundreds of trucks cross the border daily to move raw materials north to Kaesong, and to transport finished products back to South Korea.
Some 20,000 North Koreans earning about 60 dollars a month produce clothes, utensils, watches and other goods for South Korean firms at the estate.
Labour-starved South Korea sees Kaesong as a model for future joint economic projects to narrow the huge wealth gap in preparation for possible reunification.
Cross-border trains made test runs in May.
The two Koreas still remain technically at war after their conflict ended only in an armistice, not a permanent peace treaty.
AFP
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