ROK to launch construction for southern section of inter-Korean railway along east coast

SEOUL - The Republic of Korea (ROK) has decided to launch the construction of the southern section of the inter-Korean railway along the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.

The inter-Korean exchange and cooperation consultative committee was chaired by Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, deciding to start the reconnection of a 110.9-km railway from the eastern coastal city of Gangneung to the border town of Jejin, local media reported Thursday.

It will be pursued speedily without a preliminary feasibility study as it was designated as an inter-Korean cooperative project.

The Gangneung-Jejin railroad is the ROK's section of the Donghae Bukbu Line, which was built during the 1910-1945 Japanese colonization of the peninsula but was severed during the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The Donghae Bukbu Line construction project was pursued since 2000, and ROK's President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), agreed in their first summit on April 27, 2018, to reconnect inter-Korean railways and roads along the eastern and western peninsula.

ROK and the DPRK held a groundbreaking ceremony for the inter-Korean railway reconnection project in December 2018, but construction works had been delayed amid the international sanctions toward Pyongyang.

The Moon government hoped to re-link the railways across the inter-Korean border, eventually connected to Europe through the Trans-China Railway (TCR) and the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR).