South Korea to revive stalled rail project that could connect to North Korea

South Korea has announced plans to resume work on a railway section that could potentially link to North Korea's eastern city of Wonsan, a decade after the project was halted.

South ‌Korea will restart work on a railway section that could eventually link to North Korea's eastern city of Wonsan, the Unification Ministry said on Wednesday, reviving a project halted for a decade despite frozen relations with Pyongyang. Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said in a presidential briefing the government would resume restoration ‌of a disconnected section of the Gyeongwon Line near the Demilitarized Zone along the border with North Korea, a project launched in 2015 ‌and suspended the following year.

A ministry press release said the railway, which begins in Seoul, could serve as a future connection to Wonsan, a key city on North Korea's eastern coast. North Korea has poured resources into developing the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist zone, a sprawling beach resort that opened last year with capacity for about 20,000 visitors ⁠and which Kim ​has described as a model for ⁠expanding the country's tourism industry.

The Unification Ministry's announcement comes despite North Korea's move in 2024 to blow up road and rail links across the heavily fortified border as part ⁠of its drive to redefine South Korea as a hostile state. The ministry said the railway project would improve access to peace and ecological tourism sites in ​the Demilitarized Zone and help spur economic activity in border regions.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung acknowledged the difficulties of pursuing ⁠engagement with an unresponsive North that has repeatedly rebuffed his calls for rapprochement. "It may feel like shouting into an echo-less void," Lee said at the briefing. "But peace and coexistence ⁠remain ​an important task. However difficult, we have to continue pursuing that policy."

The ministry also proposed expanding the use of the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, a government fund established to support exchanges and humanitarian projects involving North Korea, to a wider range of uses domestically. With most cross-border programmes suspended ⁠since 2016 following North Korea's nuclear and missile tests, only around 2% to 3% of the fund has been spent annually over the ⁠past decade, Chung said.

Lee noted the fund ⁠had accumulated because there had been little opportunity to spend it, saying: "So the idea is to revise the enforcement decree and broaden its uses. That sounds reasonable." Chung said the ministry would also seek regulatory changes allowing ‌the fund to support ‌border-area projects, peace economy initiatives, reunification activities and North Korea studies.