North Korea is learned to have recently informed China of its wish to develop the Seoul-Wonsan railroad line as the main Inter-Korean Railroad (IKR) to be linked with the Trans-Siberian Railroad (TSR).

China wanted North and South Korea to link the Seoul-Sinuiju line with the Chinese Railway so that it may traverse northeastern China. At his August meeting with Chinese president Jiang Zemin in Pyongyang, however, North Korean National Defense Commission chairman Kim Jong Il is learned to have conveyed to Jiang the North's wish to link the Seoul-Wonsan line according to an official.

At the 5th round of inter-Korean ministerial talks held in Seoul in September, however, North Korea agreed to an early start to re-linking the Seoul-Sinjuju railway, cut off between Munsan and Kaesong in the wake of the 1950-53 Korean War. President Kim Dae Jung said on September 20, "I understand that the North Korean authorities, through consultation with the military, will decide when to launch the project." The chief North Korean delegate to the ministerial talks, Kim Ryong Sung, was quoted by a presidential spokesman as having told the chief executive during his courtesy call on him at Cheong Wa Dae, "The project is expected to be launched at an early date."

Accordingly, confusion has arisen as to whether it is Seoul-Sinuiju or Seoul-Wonsan railroad line that Pyongyang contemplates developing as the main IKR.

"North Korea is presumed to have not notified the South of its decision in favor of Seoul-Wonsan line because of a previous inter-Korean accord favoring Seoul-Sinuiju line as the forthcoming IKR," added the official. "The North instead sounded off the South's reaction to the matter at the latest ministerial talks, asking ‘What do you think about Seoul-Wonsan line?’"

A recent series of Russian media reports adds creditability to the North's reported decision in favor of Seoul-Wonsan line. The Itar Tass Press reported on Sept. 11 that the TSR, under an accord reached between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Il at their summit meeting in Moscow in early August, is set to be linked to the northern half of the Korean peninsula along the North's eastern coasts running through the Tumen River, Wonsan and Pyongyang. Accordingly, Russia reportedly is contemplating replacing the standard 1.435m tracks of North Korean railroads extending from the Tumen River to Wonsan and the demilitarized zone with 1.520m tracks, identical with the TTR. If the Seoul-Wonsan railroad line is finalized as the main IKR, it would run from Pusan to Seoul, Kaesong, Pyongsan, Sepo, Wonsan, Rajin and the Tumen River before reaching Hasan, the Russian gateway of the TSR.

North Korea has apparently opted for Seoul-Wonsan line largely because of a Russian pledge to provide it with military assistance, speculated another official. "Russia insists upon the Seoul-Wonsan line out of a desire to monopolize passage tax revenues emanating from an enormous quantity of cargo to be shipped to Europe from South Korea and Japan," he added.

But a dominating view in the South favors the development of Seoul-Sinuiju line as the proposed main IKR on the grounds it would be much more economical than the Seoul-Wonsan line. Once the railroad is connected with the TSR via the Seoul-Sinuiju line, Korean businesses would have easy access to the Chinese market as well as the European market. A detour through such Siberian cities as Vladivostok and Khbarovsk would take much longer and be risky security-wise in view of the Russian mafia.

In addition the Seoul-Wonsan line and its extension to the border with Russia, will run mostly through mountains with many tunnels, which, according to a recent survey, are not wide enough to allow container-loaded trains to pass. Hence the restoration and renovation of Seoul-Wonsan line would be far more costly than that of Seoul-Sinjiju line.

"The Seoul government is considering restoring both Seoul-Sinuiju and Seoul-Wonsan lines and using both of them freely," commented one of the officials.

(Lee Kyo Kwan, haedang@chosun.com )