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South Korean officials expect the daily freight train service across the border to expand economic cooperation with the communist neighbor and eventually pave the way for a rail link with the Asian and European continents.
A 12-car train carrying construction materials crossed the demilitarized zone to reach the North's border station of Panmun, close to the inter-Korean joint industrial complex in Kaesong, where dozens of South Korean firms employ some 20,000 North Korean workers to manufacture light industrial goods.
After loading goods produced at the Kaesong complex, the train returned to the South's border station of Doransan, 50 kilometers away from Seoul. The cargo train will make a 16.5-kilometer round trip every weekday between the two border stations, transporting raw materials and finished products.
Before the opening of the train service, hundreds of trucks have served to move raw materials to Kaesong and transport finished products back to the South.
South Korean officials described the cross-border train service as a "blood vessel" between the two Koreas. Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said the train service means "reconnecting the severed bloodline of the peninsula."
"The inter-Korean railway is a key infrastructure that will back up economic cooperation between the Koreas that is expanding and developing on a daily basis," he said in a congratulatory speech.
The normal train traffic comes seven years after the two Koreas agreed to reconnect the cross-border railway that was severed just after the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War. Work was already completed on laying track to reconnect the railways on the east and west coasts, but trial runs of trains were long delayed due to a lack of military guarantees.
The North's military had been reluctant to agree on security guarantees for using the cross-border railway, apparently due to concerns that it would expose sensitive and secret installations near the border. Trains made just one-off test runs across the border in May after the North's military agreed to provide guarantees for the safe passage of cross-border trains.
South Korea has provided 180.9 billion won (US$195.8 million) worth of materials to the North to help restore its railways, while spending 545.4 billion won for restoring its own tracks. The South has provided additional 5 billion won worth of aid to construct border railway stations in the North.
On the eve of the beginning of the regular train service, the South opened a logistics center at the Dorasan station at a cost of 84 billion won, features 22 buildings and warehouses, including ones intended for the inspection and repair of train cars.
Analysts say the cargo rail service would give a further boost to the Kaesong complex. "The train service is expected to significantly reduce shipping costs for South Korean businesses operating at the Kaesong industrial complex," the government-run Korea Transport Institute said in a report.
The industrial park, a testing ground for mixing South Korean capitalism and technology with the North's cheap labor, has been touted as one of the crowning fruits of inter-Korean dialogue.
South Korean officials vowed to open a passenger train service across the border in the near future. "Though we start with a cargo train, it will lead to a passenger train service," said Lee Churl, the chief executive of the Korea Railroad Corp.
Lee also said South and North Koreans could travel together via the rail to reach Beijing to cheer for next year's Olympics.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, while meeting with his South Korean counterpart Han Duck-soo on Monday, voiced China's support for a plan by the two Koreas to send a joint cheering squad for the Olympic Games overland via the North Korean and Chinese rail systems, according to Han's office.
If fully linked, the cross-border railway will reconnect the two Korean 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.
Last month, North Korea and Russia concluded an agreement on cross-border railways linking Rajin in North Korea to Khasan in Russia, which could pave the way for the South Korean rail to link to trans-Siberian railway.
"The joint industrial park connected by cross-border train service will also help South Korea accomplish its ambitious plan to transform itself into a logistics and business hub of the Asia-Pacific region," said Lee Hyung-keun, an economist at Seoul's government-run Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.
