North Korean railroads are in a serious state of disrepair, and train operations are unsafe on some parts of the East Coast Line due to the unconfirmed underground installation of pipes. As a result there are numerous sections where trains have to slow to below 15 kilometers-per-hour, according to a survey the Russian Railway Ministry conducted.

In the second meeting of the South Korean and Russian vice ministerial transportation cooperation committee, held in Seoul December 9 and 10, Russia agreed to deliver to Seoul, following consultation with Pyongyang, a portion of the survey related to the project of linking the Trans Korea Railway (TKR) with the Trans Siberia Railway (TSR). The survey in question was conducted in September last year and subsequently supplemented four times.

According to a statement released afterward, the closed meeting agreed to push ahead with joint surveys and research designed to develop railroad technology benefiting the whole TKR and TSR as well as the North Korean railroad networks. A joint survey of the North Korean railroads by Seoul and Moscow is expected to be carried out after the South Korean government receives the relevant outcome of the Russian survey from Moscow.

The improvement of the poor North Korean railroads is required for the projected TKR-TSR linking. Accordingly, a joint survey is essential for the purpose of figuring out the cost of the improvement, at the least. As for the modernization of the North's railways, Russia proposed the formation of an international consortium, which the South agreed to in principle. From among European countries, Poland and the Czech Republic are expected to join the proposed consortium, experts said.

The issue of what type of tracks should be adopted in the TKR-TSR linking project is again under review, according to Russian officials attending the meeting, because Pyongyang which was in favor of the standard tracks early this year has recently expressed a desire to combine standard and wide tracks. (Lee Kyo-kwan, haedong@chosun.com )