Reuters.com North Korea calls off trial train run over border http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-05-24T054340Z_01_SP163348_RTRUKOC_0_US-KOREA-NORTH-TRAINS.xml&archived=False
Wed May 24, 2006 By Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea called off trial train runs across the heavily militarized border with the South on Thursday, scotching plans for the first rail crossings in more than half a century. Reconnecting the rail lines would have been a deeply symbolic step in generally warming ties between the two Koreas because the last time a train crossed the border it carried refugees and soldiers wounded in the Korean War. Seoul's vice-unification minister, Shin Eon-sang, said Pyongyang had cited a lack of military guarantees and the "unstable situation" in the South for its decision to cancel Thursday's pilot runs, "We believe it is deeply regrettable that North Korea has unilaterally postponed an event that had been agreed to several times," Shin said in a statement. He declined to elaborate on what unstable situation in the South the communist state was referring to, or whether he thought the North's military was rejecting the project. South Korea is keen for trains to cross the border, but officials in Seoul say the North's powerful military has been reluctant to sign off on a plan for through-trains in the sensitive border area. The test runs, which would have been the first train connections since routes were severed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, would have covered a small length of track on rail links running along either side of the peninsula. The western rail link would help in the shipment of goods in and out of an industrial park in Kaesong where South Korean firms make goods at factories using cheap North Korean labor and land. The eastern rail link would help in the tourism trade. A Hyundai group affiliate that runs the Kaesong industrial park also runs a mountain resort in North Korea on the east coast that millions of South Koreans have visited. JUST A POSTPONEMENT Shin said it was too soon to draw conclusions on what this signaled for ties between the two countries, which technically remain at war since the Korean War ended in only a truce but have seen trade and other ties growing. "It is improper to pass judgment on the state of relations just from this one development", he said, describing Pyongyang's move as a postponement of the test runs. The rail links through the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) -- a 4-km (2.5-mile) wide buffer zone that has been a no-man's-land since the end of the Korean War -- run through plains and hills that are now cleared and demined but remain largely uninhabited. The two lines crossing the heavily fortified fringes of the DMZ were key war-time corridors and were until recently believed to be the North's invasion route in the event of an attack. South Korea has high hopes for the rail links and eventually envisages the inter-Korea railroad eventually stretching into China and Russia, terming it the "Iron Silk Road". Seoul has provided most of the capital and material, but while the tracks and signal system are largely complete, the trial runs are seven months behind schedule. The two Koreas agreed in July 2005 to conduct the trial runs in October. Inter-Korean talks have been moving at a fairly brisk pace in recent months but multilateral talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs have hit a snag since the last round was held in November. © Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
