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South Korea Sends 1st Train In Plan To Reconnect With North Progress toward an agreement between the U.S. and North Korea may have slowed, but South Korea has taken another remarkable step toward linking up with the neighboring regime — by train. Last week, a South Korean train crossed the border into North Korea for the first time in a decade. It was a prelude to the two Koreas reconnecting their railways, after being separated for more than half a century. South Korea is determined to push railway development forward, despite the lack of progress on the North Korean nuclear issue. At the Dorasan Station, the last stop before the inter-Korean border, South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon on Friday saw off nearly 30 engineers and officials, as they prepared to head north. "Through the connected railways, South and North Korea will prosper together," he said, "and solidify peace on the Korean Peninsula." North and South Korean inspectors will cover about 1,600 miles over 18 days, surveying the state of the rails in North Korea. They will bed down in a sleeper car. Other parts of the train are stocked with bottled water and instant noodles. South Korea is pushing hard to break ground on the reconnection project by year's end. "You will visit train stations and cross hills and rivers in North Korea that no outsiders have visited before," Cho told the surveyors. Hinting at what shape inspectors might find the north's railways, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un joked at an April summit that it would be an embarrassment if South Korean President Moon Jae-in were to travel by train to his country, suggesting the ride would not be smooth or comfortable. South Korea had to apply for an exception from the United Nations committee that manages sanctions on North Korea, and the U.N. Command, which oversees security in the demilitarized zone on the countries' border. And that was just for the survey. South Koreans are aware that reconnecting the rails is unlikely to happen without progress toward denuclearization. And although North Korea's Kim has pledged to abandon his nukes, talks between Washington and Pyongyang have been stalemated. The United States apparently gave its tacit blessing to the railway survey, despite complaints that inter-Korean engagement is getting too far ahead of progress on denuclearization. For now, tourists can ride the DMZ train, a three-car tourist train, as far as Dorasan. It is decorated with words such as "love," "peace" and "harmony" in several languages, pictures of animals that inhabit the demilitarized zone, including deer and cranes, and pictures of American soldiers fighting in the Korean War. The train runs on the Gyeongui Line, which was built in the early 1900s. It runs through Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and goes as far as Sinuiju, on the Yalu River, which forms the border with China. Some parts of the north have not seen a South Korean train since the peninsula was divided in 1945. Trains briefly carried supplies to Kaesong, a joint industrial zone just north of the border, in 2007, but service was suspended amid tensions the following year. The current plan is for railways running up and down the east and west coasts of the Korean Peninsula, and a line linking them in the middle. The lines would connect to others leading on to the rest of Asia and Europe. "I look positively at the reconnection of the railways," says Chang Yoon-hee, a nurse's aide who rode the DMZ train to Dorasan. "And if it happens, I want to ride this train not just to Pyongyang, but to Russia and Europe." The railways are part of a blueprint proposed by South Korean President Moon for economic integration between the Koreas and, in the process, to nudge the north away from its centrally planned economy toward a more market-driven one. But at a conference this week, Seoul National University economics professor Kim Byung-yeon questioned whether the proposed infrastructure projects would actually do that, or merely inject cash into the north's inefficient state-owned companies. "If these projects are implemented, I will expect huge cost, but less efficiency," he commented. What North Korea lacks is "not infrastructure, but private enterprises producing goods and services," he added. Economists draw parallels with Germany, whose 1990 reunification costs continue to mount — up to $1.7 trillion, by some estimates, in federal government subsidies to poorer eastern states. If that parallel wasn't obvious enough, there's actually a chunk of the Berlin Wall, sitting on the platform at the Dorasan Station. There's a clock on either side of the chunk, counting down the days, minutes and seconds to unification. Germany's is complete. Korea's has yet to begin. Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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१५ चैत, सियोल । दक्षिण कोरियाका राष्ट्रपति मून जाए–इन अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति डोनाल्ड ट्रम्पसँग भेटवार्ताका लागि आगामी अप्रिल १० मा वासिङ्टन डिसी भएका छन् । दक्षिण कोरियाली राष्ट्रपतिको कार्यालयका अनुसार दुई नेताबीचको भेटवार्तामा मुख्यरुपमा हाल अवरुद्ध रहेको उत्तर कोरियासँगको आणविक निःशस्त्रीकरणका विषयमा छलफल हुनेछ । उत्तर कोरियाका विषयमा अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपतिसँग राष्ट्रपति मूनको यो सातौँ वार्ता हो । भियतनामको हनोईमा अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति ट्रम्प र उत्तर कोरियाली नेता किम जोङ–अनबीचको बहुचर्चित वार्ता भङ्ग भएपछि दुई नेताबीच पहिलो पटक भेटवार्ता हुन लागेको हो । “कोरियाली प्रायःद्वीपमा पूर्ण आणविक निःशस्त्रीकरण सम्पन्न गर्नेतर्फ अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति र दक्षिण कोरियाली राष्ट्रपतिले पुनः घनीभूत छलफल गर्नुहुनेछ । भेटवार्तामा कोरिया र अमेरिकाबीचको पारम्परिक सम्बन्धलाई थप सुदृढ गर्ने उपायहरुको पनि खोजी हुनेछ । दक्षिण कोरियाली राष्ट्रपतिको कार्यालयद्वारा जारी विज्ञप्तिमा उल्लेख छ । संयुक्तराज्य अमेरिका र उत्तर कोरियाबीचको हनोई वार्ता आणविक निःशस्त्रीकरण पहिले कि उत्तर कोरियामाथि लागेका प्रतिबन्धहरु फुकुवा पहिले गर्ने भन्ने विषयमा मतभिन्नता भएपछि भङ्ग भएको थियो । तर उत्तर कोरियाले आफ्नो मुलुकमाथि लागेका प्रतिबन्धहरु आंशिक फुकुवा गर्न मात्र आग्रह गरिएको बताउँदै आएको छ । अमेरिकाले भने उत्तर कोरियाले सबै प्रतिबन्धहरु तत्काल फुकुवा हुनुपर्ने अडान राखेपछि वार्ताको औचित्य सकिएको बताएको थियो । हनोई वार्तापछि आयोजित पत्रकार सम्मेलनमा अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति डोनाल्ड ट्रम्पले वार्ताको सम्पूर्ण प्रक्रिया समाप्त नभएको र आफू अझै पनि वार्ता हुनेमा सकारात्मक रहेको बताएका थिए । उत्तर कोरियासँग सम्बन्ध सामान्यीकरणमा केन्द्रित गरिरहेको दक्षिण कोरियाले अन्तर–कोरियाली परियोजनाहरु पनि अघि बढाएको छ । दक्षिण कोरियाका यी परियोजनाले अमेरिकासँगको सम्बन्धमा तिक्तता आउने सम्भावना पनि छ । सियोलले संयुक्त राष्ट्रसंघकै संरचनाभित्र रही उत्तर कोरियाको सीमावर्ती शहर काइसोङमा रहेको औद्योगिक क्षेत्र पुनः खुला गर्ने तयारी थालेको छ । साथै उत्तर कोरियाको माउन्ट कुमगाङमा पर्यटन कार्यक्रम पुनः शुरु गर्न पनि सियोलले पहल गरिरहेको छ । उत्तर कोरियासँग पछिल्ला दिनहरुमा कुनै सम्पर्क भएको छ भनी सोधिएको प्रश्नमा राष्ट्रपति कार्यालयका एक अधिकारीले नाम नबताउने शर्तमा भने,“अन्तर–कोरियाली सम्मेलनको तत्काल सम्भावना देखिन्न । तर कुनै पनि समय त्यस्तो वार्ता हुन सक्छ ।” राष्ट्रपति मून र उत्तर कोरियाली नेता किमले गत वर्ष तीन पटक भेटघाट गर्नुभएको थियो । उत्तर कोरियाली नेता किमले दक्षिण कोरियाको भ्रमण गर्ने यसअघि घोषणा गरिए पनि त्यस्तो मितिको अझै टुङ्गो लागेको छैन ।