Koreas to open road, rail links this year

The first road and rail link to be reestablished will connect the South Korean capital Seoul with the North's city of Sinuiju near the Chinese border and pass Kaesong City, where a joint industrial park is being built.

"The road between Seoul and North Korea will be completed by the end of June," Vice Finance and Economy Minister Kim Kwang-Rim said, announcing plans for the Seoul-Sinuiju road link passing through the western side of the border.

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

"And by the end of this year, the railway will also be completed so that a road and a railway across the inter-Korean border will be open to traffic on a trial basis this year," he said.

Following a historic 2000 inter-Korean summit, the two Koreas have been building two sets of road and rail links. But construction has been delayed amid tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

The other road and railway link in the east is also yet to be completed. A makeshift, unpaved road was opened temporarily last year to take South Korean tourists to the North's scenic Mount Kumgang.

Kim headed the South Korean delegation in three-day inter-Korean economic talks that ended here Friday.

The talks wrapped up with an agreement to allow South Korean firms to start operating this year in Kaesong industrial park near the border.