KOREA: North and South Korea have begun work to relink railways and roads cut for half a century, a landmark event breaking through the world's last Cold War frontier.
The fireworks-and-fanfare ceremonies at four venues yesterday - on the east and west coast on both sides of the Demilitarised Zone bisecting the peninsula - were the latest in an array of developments in diplomacy surrounding the Koreas.
At a summit in Pyongyang on Tuesday, the North Korean leader, Mr Kim Jong-il, apologised to the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Junichiro Koizumi, for the abduction of Japanese citizens and offered concessions on global security. Mr Koizumi apologised for Japan's occupation of Korea before and during the second World War.
Road and rail links, some built by the Japanese, have been cut since the 1950-53 Korean War. Technically, the two Koreas are still at war because the conflict ended in a truce. Some routes could be operational by the end of this year.
"Today, we are standing at the start of a new era during which the South and the North will move forward, hand in hand, toward the future," South Korea's acting Prime Minister, Mr Kim Suk-soo, told dignitaries at the state-of-the- art but end-of-the-line Dorasan station on the west coast. "We are burying a history marked by the scars of war and the pain of division."
The Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, and the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac were among those who had sent messages. China praised the move and the Koizumi trip. Former Soviet leader Mr Mikhail Gorbachev added his congratulations.
"Russia is deeply satisfied with this significant and symbolic step," Mr Putin said in his letter to Mr Kim Jong-il and the South Korean President, Mr Kim Dae-jung. Mr Putin, who has pushed hard for the rail work because he wants lines to link the trans-Siberian route to Europe, said the move would "contribute to strengthening peace and security on the Korean peninsula and Asia-Pacific region as a whole".
South Koreans at two sites pressed an array of buttons to symbolise the start of work, which will begin in earnest today when mine-clearing starts. There were similar scenes in the North. "It's a great day for the Koreans, a day of optimism and hope for progress," said US Maj Gen James Soligan, deputy chief of staff at the UN Command, said. "Now it's up to them, especially North Korea, to follow through."
The two Korean presidents agreed at their summit in Pyongyang in June 2000 to link the routes but a diplomatic downturn - after President Bush took office and reviewed North Korea policy - delayed the project for months. Now things are on the move.
At Dorasan, north-west of Seoul, the South has already built a railway line and road right up to the demilitarised zone fence. At Dorasan yesterday, a train trundled as far as it could and a girl walked out of the border zone and met a boy before they walked away from the border waving red roses. Both children were South Korean. On the east coast, where rails have yet to be relaid on a 1935-vintage route hugging the coastline, fireworks erupted over the beach and hundreds of balloons floated skyward.
North Korea conducted ceremonies simultaneously on the northern side of the zone, a broad strip of land that bisects the peninsula and is packed with mines and razor wire.
The new transport corridor in Kosung in the north-east corner of South Korea will be only the second contact point after the better-known truce village of Panmunjom on the west coast just north of the south's capital Seoul.
The aim of the rail and road projects is to promote cross-border trade and exchanges. Mr Kim Dae-jung recently said he wanted to see thousands of people use the links. Mr Kim Jong-il may not share that view, but he has shifted remarkably in recent weeks.
"Part of the barbed wire that has been draped in the middle of the peninsula for more than half a century will now be opened," Mr Kim Dae-jung said of the railway, a core project of his quest for North-South reconciliation.
North Korea has embarked on tentative economic reforms at the same time it is pursuing diplomatic talks with South Korea and neighbouring countries such as Japan and Russia, trying to shake off its image as part of President Bush's so-called "axis of evil", along with Iraq and Iran.
Some railway and road routes could be opened by December, a crucial first leg of what Seoul hopes will link the 70 million people on the Korean peninsula with Europe across the railways of China and Russia. South Korean business leaders said the land link could slash transport costs to a tenth of the sea route between the two Koreas. - (Reuters)