SEOUL, May 17 (UPI) -- A South Korean passenger train crossed the heavily fortified border to reach North Korea's western border city of Kaesong at noon Thursday for the first time in more than half a century. At the same time, a North Korean train arrived in South Korea's eastern border city of Jejin on another cross-border railway for a trial run of a newly restored track.
It was the first time the two Koreas sent the trains across the Cold War's last frontier since the railways were severed shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950.
The pair of trains, each carrying 100 South Koreans and 50 North Koreans, returned home after staying two hours for celebrations for the opening of rail links between the two Koreas.
The first test runs along two restored tracks on the west and east sides of the peninsula was a highly symbolic event for the two countries to ease their decades-long Cold War hostilities and work together toward reconciliation, cooperation and eventual reunification of the peninsula.
"It is not simply a trial run. It is a very important incident in national history as it means reconnecting the severed bloodline of the peninsula," Seoul's Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said in a ceremony at Munsan station, the South's point of train departure for Kaesong.
"Today, the heart of the Korean peninsula started beating again. The railways will lead (the two Koreas) to prosperity, peace and integration," he said in a speech before boarding the North-bound train. "This will be a turning point for reducing military tensions and promoting mutual confidence and reconciliation of the two Koreas."
At the ceremony, Senior Cabinet Councilor Kwon Ho Ung, chief of the North's delegation to Cabinet-level talks with the South, said the two Koreas "should not move back or hesitate" in their efforts toward achieving a "higher level of peace and economic cooperation beyond the Korean peninsula."
With colorful fireworks exploding, hundreds of South Korean people waved "unification" flags featuring a united Korean peninsula in blue on a white background as the train left for Kaesong, live television footage showed.
The rail test run was one of the tangible inter-Korean rapprochement projects agreed upon following the historic summit in 2002.
South Korea has provided $195 million worth of materials to the North to help restore its railways, while spending $586 million for restoring its own tracks. The North has called for an additional $5.4 million worth of aid to construct border railway stations.
In a bid to ensure the test runs, Seoul earlier this week endorsed the spending of funds needed for providing 400,000 tons of rice worth $170 million and $80 million worth of raw materials to the impoverished neighbor.
In addition, Seoul is considering providing aid to help the communist North improve its system in hopes that the South would be linked to the Asian and European continents through the North's railways.
If fully linked, the cross-border railway will reconnect the two Koreas' capitals and proceed on to Sinuiju, a major industrial city on North Korea's border with China. It will link up to China, Mongolia and eventually Russia's trans-Siberian railway, through which South Korea could deliver products to Europe, the second-biggest market for Seoul.
"The reconnected railways will provide an opportunity to connect us with Russia and China by linking the inter-Korean railways with the trans-Chinese Railroad and the trans-Siberian Railway," Unification Minister Lee said.
But test runs do not mean the lines are about to open to normal traffic. The North has repeatedly delayed trial runs of the cross-border trains, though work was completed long before on laying tracks, largely due to the military's concern that it would expose sensitive and secret installations near the border.
Last week the North's military finally agreed to provide military guarantees for the safe passage of trains -- but only for Thursday's test runs. The two Koreas should have more military talks to have further train runs across the border.
"It took seven years to conduct test runs since the two Koreas agreed to reconnect the railroads," said Chang Dal-Joong, a political science professor at Seoul National University. "Actual opening of cross-border rail links would come only after the resolution of North Korea's nuclear weapons issue. The inter-Korean rail project has a long way to go."
