North Korea To Connect Railway to South Korea with Russian Help

FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

North Korea To Connect Railway to South Korea with Russian Help

Sept. 11, 2018 (EIRNS)—Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, North Korean Deputy Railways Minister Kim Yun Hyok announced that his country plans to connect its railways with those of South Korea.

“At the moment, we are determined to connect the railways of North and South Korea, this is a fundamentally important project and it is necessary to provide the best possible conditions for this project to be finally implemented,”

Kim told the panel session at EEF today.

According to Sputnik, North Korean Railways Ministry’s Department of the External Affairs Deputy Director Kim Chang Sik said the project would be carried out jointly with Russia and South Korea.

“In the future, we will develop this project on the basis of negotiations between Russia and North Korea, North and South Korea so that the owners of this project are the countries of the Korean Peninsula,”

Kim Chang Sik said. Kim also said that the three countries should create “a joint group for the development of these railroads.”

The announcement is in line with the joint declaration signed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, agreeing to connect railways on the peninsula. The connection will give South Korea access to the Trans-Siberian Railway. In this regard the South may take part in the Khasan-Rajin railway project, which was agreed upon in 2001 by then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia has already invited the South to participate.