SEOUL, May 18 (UPI) -- South Korea is seeking to send its aid shipments to North Korea through a newly restored cross-border railway to open normal traffic of rail services.
South and North Korea Thursday conducted their first test run of cross-border railways, which were severed shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. But it was just a one-time run due to the North's reluctance to open the heavily fortified border for normal train traffic.
"The government will propose sending raw materials aid to the North through the cross-border railway to push for the formal opening of inter-Korean rail services," a government official said Friday.
South Korea has promised to provide $80 million worth of raw materials to help the impoverished North improve its tattered light industry and produce more daily necessities, despite criticism at home about appeasement amid a crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear programs.
In return, South Korea will conduct a joint study of three mineral mines in the North as part of efforts to develop natural resources in the communist neighbor.
