Russia, North and South Korea to discuss consolidation of railways

Moscow will host three-party talks at the end of April with North and South Korea regarding the possible merger of the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Korean railways.

As reported by a Rosbalt correspondent, the announcement was made by the president of Russian Railways, Gennadi Fadeev, at a Monday press conference. According to Fadeev, the talks will include not only representatives of the railroads of the three countries, but representatives of their financial structures as well.

Fadeev said that there currently exist two projects to consolidate the railway lines, called Eastern and Central. Both variants have been worked out by Russian specialists. 'The Eastern project can be realized within 10 years, and the Central in two to three years,' he said. 'In that respect, from an economic point of view the Central option is more advantageous.'

He said that documents and technical-economic guidelines for the two projects had already been worked out, on which the Russian side has already spent more than 500 million rubles.