South Korea to restart work on its stretch of the Gyeongwon railway to the North

A railway that once ran from Seoul to the North Korean port city of Wonsan is about to see work start again, at least on the southern side. Vice Unification Minister Kim Nam-jung said on Tuesday that construction on the South Korean section of the Gyeongwon Line will resume soon.

What happened?

Kim spoke at a seminar in Seoul on peace tourism cooperation on the Korean Peninsula. The government is trying to restore the southern part of the Gyeongwon Line, which once connected the two sides.

Right now, the last stop you can reach on the southern section is Baekmagoji in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province. The Unification Ministry (Seoul's agency for North Korea policy) plans to restart work on the stretch between Baekmagoji and Woljeong-ri Station. That is the northernmost station on the South Korean side, close to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the fortified strip that divides the two Koreas.

The aim, Kim said, is "preparing a path connecting the two Koreas."

Why is the ministry doing this?

Kim framed the project as part of a wider push for contact between people. "Peace will not come by declaration, but it grows bit by bit when people meet people face to face," he said.

The ministry says it will try to create those encounters by building transport infrastructure and developing tourism in the border area.

Kim also asked for more interest from the private sector and the international community. Tourism in the border area, he said, cannot be driven by the government alone.

What came before, and what's next?

Restoration of the line began in 2015. It stopped in May 2016, after North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test earlier that year.

Earlier this year, the ministry briefed the National Assembly, South Korea's parliament, on its timetable. The plan is to carry out preparatory work within this year and to resume construction on the cross-border line next year.