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A regular freight train service between the two Koreas resumed last December after a break of 56 years, but some 92 percent of trains were empty, it emerged Thursday.
According to Unification Ministry data disclosed by Grand National Party lawmaker Kwon Young-se of the Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee, 150 of 163 regular freight trains that ran between Munsan in South Korea and Bongdong in the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea from December last year until August this year transported no cargo.
The 13 occasions when it did carry cargo amount to an average of only about 1.5 times a month. In May, July and August this year the trains carried no cargo at all. Trains have transported 308 tons of cargo to the North and imported 42 tons from there. "A total of some W272 million (US$1=W1,406) was wasted due to the operation of empty cargo trains,Ħħ Kwon said.
The two Koreas agreed to resume the cross-border freight train service at the summit in October last year. The train has run once a day except weekends and holidays since Dec. 11. A 12-carriage train ran until January, but since February there have been only two pieces of rolling stock, engine and carriage, if there was no cargo to transport. Kwon said, "This is a graphic example of the showy nature of the previous government's relations with the North."
A Unification Ministry official said, "Train freight rates are lower than truck cargo rates only when trains carry heavy-duty cargo and run long distances. Many of the products made at the Kaesong Industrial Complex are light-weight goods such as garments and dolls. Such cargo doesn't usually need trains, and their main destination in any case is the Seoul area."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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