South and North Koreas hold official ceremony of their railway connection

For the first time in the past 50 years South and North Koreas have laid railways across the dividing demilitarized zone. The official ceremony of linking the railways has taken place this Saturday in the western and eastern parts of the demilitarized zone.

A spokesman for the South Korean government told the ceremony in the western segment of the buffer zone that the clearance of obstacles and mines at least in two corridors of the demilitarized zone had enabled both countries to resume their national ties and had been the result of their joint efforts to achieve reconciliation, cooperation and peace.

In the eastern segment of the demilitarized zone the North Korean official participants in the ceremony also spoke highly of this event. They stressed that the united railways would open a history for the joint prosperity of the North and the South.

However, the official connection of the Trans-Korean mainline railway does not mean the start of free transport communication between the two Korean states. The work for laying railways at some sections of the buffer zone and beyond it has not yet been completed. According to forecasts of the South Korean government, this work will be over no early than late in September.

The united Trans-Korean mainline railway is expected to be subsequently linked to the Russian Trans-Siberian Railway.