The inter-Korean exchange and cooperation consultative committee was chaired by Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, deciding to start the reconnection of a 110.9-km railway from the eastern coastal city of Gangneung to the border town of Jejin, local media reported Thursday.
It will be pursued speedily without a preliminary feasibility study as it was designated as an inter-Korean cooperative project.
The Gangneung-Jejin railroad is the South Korean section of the Donghae Bukbu Line, which was built during the 1910-1945 Japanese colonization of the peninsula but was severed during the 1950-1953 Korean War.
The Donghae Bukbu Line construction project was pursued since 2000, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), agreed in their first summit on April 27, 2018, to reconnect inter-Korean railways and roads along the eastern and western peninsula.
South Korea and the DPRK held a groundbreaking ceremony for the inter-Korean railway reconnection project in December 2018, but construction works had been delayed amid the international sanctions toward Pyongyang.
The Moon government hoped to re-link the railways across the inter-Korean border, eventually connected to Europe through the Trans-China Railway (TCR) and the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR).
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