Koreas to make historic train cross of Cold War line

Seoul, May 17: Trains from North and South Korea will pierce their heavily armed border today, restoring for the first time an artery severed in their 1950-1953 war and rekindling dreams of unification.

It has taken the two Koreas 56 years to send trains, one starting in the South and one in the North across the Cold War's last frontier for the planned runs of about 25 km.

The two passenger trains, carrying 100 South Koreans and 50 North Koreans each, are scheduled to cross the border at just after 0830 hrs IST and then head back later in the day.

Elaborate ceremonies have been planned for the trains' departures and highly symbolic arrivals at stations a few kilometres (miles) on the other side of the border.

North Korea's military, fearful of increased openings between the isolated country and the outside world, cancelled a planned run a year ago. It agreed last week to a one-off run, despite pressure from Seoul for more crossings.

The South Korean government has been criticised at home for sending massive aid to the North only to see its largesse rebuffed by Pyongyang, which has halted cooperation projects and sparked a security crisis with a nuclear test last year.

South Korea, fearful of the hundreds of billions of dollars it would cost to unify with its impoverished neighbour, has sought a series of projects to gradually bring the two together.

The two Koreas, still technically still at war because their conflict ended only in a truce, have lived with a razor wire and land-mine strewn border dividing the peninsula for decades and over 1 million troops near a demilitarised buffer zone.

To entice the North to allow the crossing, South Korea has offered some 80 million dollars in aid for its light industries.

Eventually, South Korea, which only shares a border with the North, said it wants to send passengers and cargo through its neighbour into China and Russia and link with the Trans-Siberian railway. Export-dependent South Korea could see huge savings in moving cargo if North Korea allows the rail link.

Reuters>