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South and North Korea, in a working-level meeting on Saturday, agreed to conduct test runs of two cross-border railways -- the Gyeongui and Donghae Lines -- on May 25. They will run from the border cities of Munsan in the South to Kaesong in the North on the Gyeongui Line, and from Mt. Kumgang Station in the North to Chejin Station in Kosong in the South on the east coast Donghae Line. In addition, the two Koreas will hold another working-level meeting in Mt. Kumgang on Tuesday to prepare for the June visit to North Korea by former president Kim Dae-jung. On the same day, an inter-Korean generals¡¯ meeting scheduled at Freedom House in the Panmunjom truce village in the demilitarized zone is to settle the issue of safe passage for the cross-border trains.
Railway traffic was cut during the Korean War on June 12, 1951. Now, 55 years later, it will resume, improving the chances that Kim Dae-jung will go to Pyongyang by train as he hoped.
The project to re-link the Gyeongui Line was agreed on in the first inter-Korean ministerial meeting in July 2000. A ceremony to mark the reconnection was held in June 2003 and test-runs were scheduled twice, for June 2004 and July 2005, both times abandoned because the North Korean military would not guarantee safe passage. It now looks as if the project, which has so far cost some W700 billion (US$700 million), has once again progressed to test-runs six years after the initial accord.
Beyond that, it is uncertain if the test-runs will be a stepping-stone for an actual reopening of the lines, a preparation for the one-off event of Kim Dae-jung's North Korea visit, or go no further at all.
North Korea is displaying a positive attitude to inter-Korean dialogue by agreeing both to the working-level contacts over Kim's visit to Pyongyang and the inter-Korean generals¡¯ meeting. The mood contrasts sharply with Pyongyang¡¯s strained relations with Washington as the U.S. focuses on isolating the North by highlighting the Stalinist country¡¯s dollar counterfeiting and human rights abuses.
It is a familiar pattern. Whenever its relationship with the U.S. becomes strained, North Korea mobilizes the inter-Korean channel with talk of ¡°one nation." Pyongyang must have been delighted beyond its wildest dreams with the president¡¯s offer of ¡°unconditional¡± aid to the North, made last week since he feels the fate of the Korean Peninsula cannot be entrusted to the U.S. alone.
We must be wary lest the strong emotions provoked by the first trains running between the two Koreas after half a century become yet another excuse for delaying the resolution of the North Korea question.
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