Sep 18, 2002
The project adds to rising hopes that a durable peace may finally take root on the Cold War's last frontier, following moves by North Korea to emerge from its long isolation.
A day earlier, Japan decided to restart talks on establishing diplomatic relations with the North after the Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, made an unprecedented one-day trip to Pyongyang for talks with leader Kim Jong Il.
Kim showed unprecedented openness during the talks, admitting that his communist state abducted at least 11 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to educate communist spies in Japanese language and customs.
Kim also confirmed his country's willingness to start talks with the United States. U.S.-North Korea relations deteriorated after President Bush in January labeled the North as part of "an axis of evil" trying to develop weapons of mass destruction.
The two Koreas, divided since 1945, have a history of making big deals that later fall through. But North Korea is now showing a new willingness to reach out to the world.
The inter-Korean project involves two sets of cross-border railways and roads. The two sides' prime ministers and other top government officials attended separate ceremonies on each side of the border.
"This is a monumental project marking a new beginning in national history," South Korean Prime Minister-designate Kim Suk-soo said during a ceremony at Dorasan Train Station on the western border, the last South Korean stop on the rail line that is to be linked with the North.
As fireworks burst and balloons rose into the air, four soldiers opened a barbed-wire fence leading to the demilitarized zone, a buffer zone riddled with land mines that separates the two Koreas.
During the nationally televised ceremony, a girl symbolizing the North walked out from behind the fence and hugged a boy symbolizing the South. A two-car train then moved toward the opened gate in a symbolic gesture. Hundreds of people applauded.
A few miles away, North Korea held a similar ceremony attended by North Korean Prime Minister Hong Song Nam and a few thousand people.
Two transportation corridors are to be built through the 2 1/2-mile-wide no man's land. Workers were to start clearing mines from the heavily fortified zone later Wednesday.
If plans go smoothly, an old cross-border road on the eastern sector will be reconnected as early as November and a cross-border railway on the western sector by year's end.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to both South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, congratulating the "wise decision" made by the two Korean states, the Kremlin press service said. Russia hopes the railroad eventually will be linked with the Trans-Siberian railway to transport South Korean exports to Europe.