Rails to link 2 Koreas this year

The two Koreas will be connected by a road as early as November and by a railroad before the end of this year, officials said Friday in releasing a joint statement at the end of this week's economic talks in Seoul.

The statement provided a timeline to restore the rail and road links severed more than half a century ago in the Korean War. Work will begin simultaneously on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone on Sept. 18 to reconnect the Gyeongui and East Coast rail lines and two roads running parallel to them.

The Gyeongui railroad, connecting Seoul and North Korea's northeastern city Sinuiju, is scheduled to be completed before the end of this year; the parallel road will be finished by next spring, connecting Gaeseong in the North and Munsan in the South.

A temporary road on the east coast of the peninsula, to be used for overland Mount Geumgang tours and reunions of separated families, will be linked before the end of November, the joint statement said.

Some parts of the East Coast railroad and road, which presumably require more work than the Gyeongui project, will be completed within a year.

The two Koreas also agreed to hold military talks before Sept. 18 in order to hammer out a military safety guarantee pact that will allow construction work inside the Demilitarized Zone.

"All the construction agreements are projects that will require the two Koreas to frequently cross the DMZ," a South Korean source said, "and such exchanges will naturally ease military tensions between the divided Koreas." The countries are technically at war, since the 1950-53 Korean War was suspended by an armistice.

South Korea will provide the materials and equipment necessary to build railroads and roads in the North. Officials from the two sides will meet at Mount Geumgang in the North from Sept. 13 to 15 to discuss further details of the rail and road projects.

"North Korea was largely interested in reconnecting the East Coast Line," said Cho Myoung-gyon, the spokesman of the South Korean delegation, in a briefing given after the economic cooperation talks ended. "We also exchanged our opinions about linking the inter-Korean railroad to the Trans-Siberian Railroad, but the discussion was rudimentary."

In return for the agreement to restore rail and road links with the South, North Koreans returned with a sizable food and fertilizer aid package. The South Korean government will provide 400,000 tons of rice and 100,000 tons of fertilizer to the famine-stricken North as soon as possible, presumably in three weeks.

The two Koreas signed a separate agreement on the food aid. The rice shipment will be 100,000 tons more than what Seoul had intended to send, relieving the severe food crisis in the North as well as giving momentum to the economic reform that began there in July.

The rice will be delivered by sea, and it will be five or six months before ships arrive in North Korea. The 40-kilogram bags of rice will be labeled "Republic of Korea."

The two Koreas also agreed to begin building an industrial complex in Gaeseong, North Korea, before the end of the year.

In order to control flooding on the Imjin River that crosses the Korean border, South and North Korea will begin a site survey in November, after military authorities of the two sides complete any necessary preparation. The North agreed to provide meteorological data on the upper stream of the river; the South will send saplings for planting along the river as a flood-control measure.

Regarding the Mount Geumgang Dam, officials from both sides will meet from Sept. 16 to 18 in the North to plan a joint inspection of the dam. The North Korean dam has stirred safety concerns in the South after satellite pictures showing cracks on the dam were released earlier this year.

North Korea agreed to send its economic survey team to the South on Oct. 26. The two sides also agreed to give effect to four previous inter-Korean agreements to guarantee investment and to ban double taxation.

by Lee Young-jong