The South Korean port of Busan ranks as
one of the world's 10 biggest and busiest ports on
the strength of all those Korean exports. It
could, however, grow exponentially if only the
goods start rolling by rail from Busan, up the
Korean Peninsula through South and North Korea,
and on to Russia - and Europe.
That's a
vision long shared by Russia - and also by
managers of a special zone covering Busan and
nearby Jinhae as they move full speed ahead in a
vast program for expanding the port that dominates
the southeastern corner of the peninsula. The only
drawback: North Korea's
dilapidated rail network and the North's penchant
for turning all such dreams into chips in a grand
bargaining game.
Russian visionaries and
South Korean planners see the prospect of
North-South Korean rail traffic as the harbinger
of a bold new era binding North and South as has
never happened since the artificial division of
the peninsula by the US and the Soviet Union at
the end of World War II. It's that vision that
makes the first test runs set for this Thursday on
stretches of track on the eastern and western
sides of the peninsula so exciting to them.
The new track is statistically brief. On
the west, it's just 27.3 kilometers from Munsan in
South Korea, over the Imjin River, past the
cavernous Dora Station, the last stop in the
South, across the Demilitarized Zone and on to the
station at Kaesong, just beyond the DMZ. And on
the east, the line runs 25.5 kilometers from Jejin
Station to the station at the Mount Kumkang
resort.
Travelers on the western line will
see reminders of the railroad that operated for
the last time when US forces that had driven the
North Koreans from South Korea and occupied the
Northern capital Pyongyang were driven back again
by the Chinese at the end of 1950. In the
underbrush several hundred meters from the
railroad, at the base of Dora-san, a promontory
that offers a sweeping view on a clear day, rests
the rusted hulk of the last locomotive on the run,
blown off the tracks in the fighting. (The
engineer is said to have jumped out and escaped
just in time.) And on a siding at the station at
Imjin Gak, just south of the Imjin River, is an
old train that once ran the route regularly.
On the eastern side of the peninsula, the
new line runs near but not always on the same path
as the original railroad, totally obliterated by
bombing during the Korean War. The route of that
railroad is clearly visible in the elevated earth
and gravel that formed the road bed.
Soldiers from both Koreas had
to spend months exploding mines on either side of
the DMZ as they prepared the way for construction
of new tracks through fields sown with explosives
to block invading forces. On the southern side,
ribbons were cut
in front of a South Korean locomotive in a grand
ceremony in June 2003 just below the DMZ after all
the track was laid.
The test runs do not,
however, mean these historic lines are about to
open to normal traffic. North Korea has repeatedly
delayed tests ever since the first line, on the
west, was completed four years ago. Why has it
taken so long?
South Korea paid for both
the lines, providing the equipment, track and
other supplies, building the railroads on its side
while North Korean workers, many of them soldiers,
took much longer to lay track on their side. The
real reason for the delay, though, was North
Korea's insistence on using the railroad as a
wedge for bargaining for concessions from the
South.
North Korean negotiators see a link
between the railroad lines and "the northern limit
line" - the imaginary line in the Yellow (or West)
Sea south of which North Korean boats are banned.
North Korea refuses to recognize this
line, set by the United Nations Command in Seoul
well after the signing in Panmunjom of the truce
that ended the Korean War in July 1953. The
dispute has erupted in bloody battles at sea, most
spectacularly in June 1999, and again three years
later as Northern patrol boats challenged South
Korea for control of the fish-rich waters at the
height of the crabbing season.
It was
because of North Korea's demand for revision or
removal of the line that its negotiators canceled
one test run after it had been scheduled and again
made an issue of the line at talks last week.
South Korea relented, agreeing to discuss the
whole thing before the North would agree
definitively to this week's test runs.
Such tough bargaining raises the question
of whether this week's test runs are of more than
symbolic value.
Test runs will be needed
just about every day for weeks or months before a
new line opens for ordinary use. One single test
is just the beginning. Trains have to rumble
regularly to test the endurance and safety of the
tracks, the reliability of the signaling
equipment, and a host of other details.
Even then, moreover, the question remains
when or whether the trains will be able to move
routinely, carrying freight in and out of the
Kaesong zone where nearly 20 South Korean
companies are turning out light-industrial
products from assembly lines now manned by about
10,000 North Korean workers. These factories are
to be the vanguard of many more, but investors
will be reluctant to carry on if trains are
subject to stops and starts dictated by
negotiators.
Similarly, tourist traffic to
Kumkang, which now moves on buses, will have to
move on regular schedules for that line to begin
to make sense economically.
For both North
and South Korea, however, the stakes are much
higher than simply moving freight and passengers
short distances to special zones. Ultimately the
rail lines are to provide links for goods to go
all the way from South Korea through the North not
only to Russia and Europe but also to China.
The Russians, however, appear more
enthusiastic about that vision than do the Chinese
- probably because the huge Russian land mass
extends all the way to Europe, while goods that
enter China would be likely to stay there rather
than go on through Mongolia to Russia. It's even
conceivable that the Chinese see this vision as a
threat - a reminder of hostilities between the
Soviet Union and China.
A sign of Russia
enthusiasm is that the Russians have a
representative in Pyongyang dedicated full-time to
working out how to overcome some of the obstacles,
physical as well as diplomatic and political. So
excited are South Koreans about the project that
more than 200 officials are booked to board the
trains for the runs on the east and west sides.
Among them is a vice minister of defense - the
highest-ranking South Korean defense official to
visit the North.
The movement of goods
through North Korea, Russians and South Koreans
argue, can only mean a financial bonanza for
everyone, including the North Koreans. Just think
of the charges Pyongyang will be able to impose
for cargo to cross the Tumen River into Russia or
the Yalu River into China.
Right now,
however, the North Korean network is so shaky that
the country's own trains creak along at extremely
low speeds, 10-15 km/h, if they move at all.
Kaesong, the seat of the Koryo Dynasty before the
rise of the Yi Dynasty in the 14th century,
remains an important center, with a rail yard
whose most notable feature in recent years has
been the sight of coal-driven locomotives dating
from the Japanese colonial era.
North
Korean leader Kim Jong-il may want to overhaul his
system, but he also is believed to see a rail
network that is really an extension of the South
Korean system as a threat as much as a source of
desperately needed revenue. The city of Kaesong,
before the Korean War, was in Southern hands - a
historic irony that may add to his fears. Could it
be that Kim believes the spectacle of freight
trains traversing his fiefdom will open up North
Korean society to pernicious foreign influence -
and undermine his rule?
Journalist
Donald Kirk has been covering Korea - and
the confrontation of forces in Northeast Asia -
for more than 30 years. (Copyright 2007
Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
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