South Korea to Resume Railway Project to North Korea in 2027

August 5, 2026 | 05:20 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - South Korea will resume construction of a railway line connecting Seoul with Wonsan, a city in eastern North Korea. This project had been stalled for a decade due to strained relations with Pyongyang.

South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a briefing to President Lee Jae Myung on Wednesday that construction work is scheduled to begin in 2027 and be completed in 2029, Yonhap reported, citing ANTARA.

The project was launched in 2015, but was suspended in 2016 after cross-border relations deteriorated. In 2024, North Korea destroyed highways and railways along the heavily fortified border as part of its efforts to redefine South Korea as an enemy state.

In the presentation, the ministry also presented its main policy plans focusing on peaceful conflict resolution, crisis management, and long-term efforts toward a nuclear-weapon-free Korean Peninsula and peace in Northeast Asia.

The ministry also stressed the need to stop referring to North Korea as the "main enemy" as part of steps to build peaceful coexistence with Pyongyang and revive long-frozen Korean Peninsula relations.

Currently, South Korea uses the term "North Korea" instead of its official name, as Seoul does not recognize the two Koreas as separate countries under the 1991 Inter-Korean Basic Agreement.

Additionally, the ministry aims to revive the 2018 inter-Korean agreement to reduce military tensions and promote peaceful use of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas.

The Unification Ministry will revise the rules of the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to allow the budget to be used for developing peace economic zones, private-sector unification projects, and North Korea research.

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