Two Koreas agree to test cross-border rail links
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-05-13 10:45 The two Koreas have agreed to conduct test runs
later this month on railways linking the North and South for the first time
since the Korean peninsula was divided in 1948, officials have said.
"The trial runs will be implemented simultaneously in the North and South on
May 25," a spokesman for South Korea's unification ministry told AFP.
About 100 North Koreans, including engineers, government officials
and journalists will ride from Kaesong in the North to the South Korean city of
Munsan on 27.3 kilometers of newly laid track.
Meanwhile, a similar number of South Koreans will travel in the opposite
direction on a 25.5-kilometer stretch from South Korea's Donghae to Mount
Kumgang in the North.
The agreement was hammered out at talks in Kaesong that ended early Saturday
with the two sides still undecided on when to hold an official ceremony to
celebrate the opening of the landmark links.
Former South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung has said he wants to travel by
train when he heads north for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in
mid-June.
The agreement, which is part of a series of reconciliation projects between
the two Koreas, comes with the Stalinist North still refusing to defuse a
stand-off with the United States over its nuclear weapons programme.
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