The Trans-Korean Main Line is a project to build railway infrastructure in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

, and allow rail freight to travel between

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

; it is hoped to halve the time taken to transport freight from eastern Asia to Europe and earn substantial transit fees. In 2001, the leaders of Russia and North Korea signed agreements to construct a rail corridor.

Construction

In 2008, reconstruction work began on a 54 km cross-border rail link between Khasan in Russia, and the port of

Rasŏn Rason (formerly Rajin-Sŏnbong; ) is a North Korean special city and ice-free port in the Sea of Japan in the North Pacific Ocean on the northeast tip of North Korea. It is in the Kwanbuk region and location of the Rason Special Economic Zone. ...

, via

Tumangang Tumangang-rodongjagu ( ko, 두만강로동자구) is a neighbourhood in Sonbong, Rason, North Korea, near the China–North Korea–Russia tripoint where the borders of the three countries converge. It is also the closest town in North Korea ...

both in North Korea;

Russian Railways Russian Railways (russian: link=no, ОАО «Российские железные дороги» (ОАО «РЖД»), OAO Rossiyskie zheleznye dorogi (OAO RZhD)) is a Russian fully state-owned vertically integrated railway company, both manag ...

sees this as a first step in construction of a trans-Korean main line. Initially freight is expected to be forwarded by sea from South Korea's second city

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

to Rasŏn; there are also plans to reconstruct a line from Rasŏn to the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

border. Further plans are to extend the line along the east coast of the Korean peninsula, across the North/South Korean border to Busan. A line between Onjong-ri and Jojin would be rebuilt.

References

{{reflist, 2 Railway lines in South Korea Rail transport in Korea

Construction

See also

References