South Korea to continue building railway line to North Korea in 2027

ILLUSTRATION BY UNSPLASH/INHYEOK PARK

South Korea will resume construction of a railway line, linking Seoul with the eastern North Korean city of Wonsan, to revive a project that was halted for a decade due to frozen relations with Pyongyang.

The South Korean Unification Ministry reported in a meeting with President Lee Jae Myung that construction work was scheduled to begin in 2027 and be completed in 2029, according to a Yonhap report.

The project was launched in 2015, but suspended in 2016 after cross-border relations deteriorated.

In 2024, North Korea destroyed highways and railways along the heavily guarded border as part of its efforts to redefine South Korea as an enemy state.

In the presentation, the ministry also conveyed the main policy plan which focuses on the peaceful resolution of conflicts, crisis management, and long-term encouragement towards a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and the creation of peace in Northeast Asia.

The ministry also said the need to stop referring to North Korea as "the main enemy" should no longer be used as part of the move to build a peaceful coexistence with Pyongyang and revive the long-frozen Korean Peninsula relations.

Currently, South Korea uses the term "North Korea" instead of its official name, because Seoul does not recognize two Koreas as two separate countries based on the 1991 North Korea-South Korea Basic Agreement.

In addition, the ministry wants to revive the inter-Korean military tension reduction agreement agreed in 2018 and make use of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that separates the "two Koreas" more peacefully.

The ministry will revise the rules of the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to allow the use of the budget for the development of a peace economic zone, unification projects initiated by the private sector, and research on North Korea.