Image copyright Getty Images

For the first time in more than a decade, a train has travelled from South Korea across the heavily guarded border into North Korea.

On board is a team of South Korean experts investigating ways to help North Korea modernise its rail network.

The two Koreas have made significant progress in improving their relationship over the past year.

The hope is that it will eventually become easier to travel and trade across the border.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The train had to make its way over one of the most heavily guarded borders in the world

Image copyright EPA Image caption South Korean officials say opening the line will improve peace and prosperity on both sides

Image copyright Getty Images

When the leaders of North and South Korea had their historic meeting in April, North Korea's Kim Jong-un asked for help with updating his country's railways, which he said were in an "embarrassing" state.

Some of the infrastructure dates back to the early 20th Century, so if it is ever to link up with the South it needs a full overhaul.

The engineers boarded the train in Dorasan, just north of Seoul, on Friday morning for the short journey to the Demilitarised Zone which has divided the Korean peninsula since the Korean War in the 1950s.

A banner displayed across the train as it headed over the heavily armed border described it as an Iron Horse, running towards an era of peace and prosperity.

At Panmun Station across the border, a North Korean engine took over to take them further north.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The experts can only look at the network so far, they can't do any actual work on it

The 28 experts will live on the train for the next 18 days while inspecting 1,200km (745 miles) of track and railway infrastructure.

The BBC's Laura Bicker in Seoul says the engineers can only look at the North's network but they can't touch it just yet.

They also had to get special one-off clearance from the UN to get around sanctions, which prohibit taking fuel and certain equipment into North Korea.

Image copyright EPA

Cho Myoung-gyon, who heads the Unification Ministry which oversees relations with North Korea, said the project was "intended to overcome division and open a new future of the Korean Peninsula".

"Through the one connected railway, the South and the North will prosper together and the ground for peace on the Korean Peninsula will be consolidated. The trains running on the track will also carry peace and prosperity with them to North East Asia and the world," South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Could 2019 see a regular scheduled train crossing the DMZ?

But while inter-Korean relation-building has continued apace over the past year, talks with the US have stalled.

Pyongyang and Washington have repeatedly accused each other of failing to honour the vague agreements about denuclearisation they made at their landmark summit in Singapore in June.

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in is determined that this railway project will go ahead, says our correspondent.

The US has given its support to the rail survey, but Mr Moon will have to have a number of difficult conversations if he's to persuade President Donald Trump that easing sanctions at this stage would be worthwhile so the project can go ahead, our correspondent says.</s>South Korean trains venture over the border for first time in a decade to fix the North’s dilapidated railway</s>A South Korean train crossed into North Korea on Friday for the first time in a decade — packed with engineers on a mission to upgrade the North’s dilapidated rail tracks and create a linked, cross-border network.

Connecting up the railway systems was one of the agreements made earlier this year in a key meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the South’s President Moon Jae-in.

It marked the first time in a decade that a train from the South entered North Korea.

TV footage on Friday showed a red, white and blue train — displaying a banner reading “Iron Horse is now running toward the era of peace and prosperity” — pull away from the South’s Dorasan station, the nearest terminal from the western part of the inter-Korean border.

“This signals the start of co-prosperity of the North and the South by reconnecting railways,” Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mee said.

She added the railway reconnection would help expand the country’s “economic territory” to Eurasia by land, as the division of the Korean peninsula has left South Korea geopolitically cut off from the continent for many decades.

The six-carriage train is transporting 28 South Koreans including railway engineers and other personnel and carrying 55 tonnes of fuel and an electricity generator.

There is a passenger coach, a sleeping coach, an official coach and a wagon loaded with water for showers and laundry.

When it arrives at Panmun Station — the first North Korean terminal across the border — the six carriages will be linked up to a North Korean train, and the South Korean locomotive will return home.

The South Koreans and their counterparts will live in the train, inspecting two railway lines for a total of 18 days — one linking the North’s southernmost Kaesong City to Sinuiju City near the Chinese border, and the other connecting Mount Kumgang near the inter-Korean border to Tumen River bordering Russia in the east.

They will travel some 2,600 kilometres (1,600 miles) on railway tracks together, the transport ministry said.

Before the division of the Korean peninsula in 1948, there were two railway lines linking the North to the South — one in the west and the other in the east.

As a gesture towards reconciliation, the two Koreas reconnected the western line in 2007 and limited numbers of freight trains transported materials and goods to and from the Seoul-invested Kaesong industrial zone in the North for about a year.

But the line has since then been put out of service due to heightened tension over the North’s nuclear development programme.

The current railway project has also faced delays over concerns it could violate UN sanctions imposed on the North over its nuclear and missile programmes.

But the UN Security Council granted an exemption for the joint study last week, although it is unclear whether others will be given as the project progresses.

Seoul said the survey was purely aimed at gathering information on the current state of the North’s rail system and assured that actual restoration works would come only after consents from the UN.

The South’s Unification Ministry has earmarked some 63.4 billion won ($56.6 million) for next year on the assumption that it will take five years to repair and improve the two railway routes in the North.

The North’s leader Kim Jong Un, during a summit with the South’s President Moon Jae-in in April, said the North’s railway infrastructures are “embarrassingly” dilapidated, praising the South’s high-speed railway system.

The North’s railway tracks are in such disrepair that trains reportedly operate between 20-45 km per hour.

The study comes as differences emerge between Seoul and Washington, which stations 28,500 troops in the South as part of their decades-old alliance.

The South’s dovish President Moon has long favoured engagement with the nuclear-armed North and has dangled large investment and joint cross-border projects as incentives for steps towards denuclearisation.</s>For the first time in more than a decade, a South Korean train entered the North on Friday, as officials and engineers begin a surveying mission on the tracks.

The move is crucial to realizing Pyongyang and Seoul's shared goal of re-establishing rail connections between the two countries. The aim is to facilitate cross-border travel and trade.

"Iron Horse is now running toward the era of peace and prosperity," read a banner on the train as it pulled out of Dorasan Station, near the border.

"Through the railways that will be connected in one, the South and North will prosper together and peace in the Korean Peninsula will become firmer," South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said during a ceremony at the station.

Leaders of both countries have announced a desire to break ground on a new, interconnected rail line by the end of the year.

However, US sanctions make it difficult to proceed with this plan. While Washington has signaled a willingness to roll back the penalties, it has said that North Korea must first prove that it has taken steps to abandon its nuclear and missile programs.

At the same time, soldiers from both sides were making another show of solidarity by removing at least 20 guard posts from the border. Teams are then going to search for human remains left over from the Korean War, marking the first-ever joint search.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, seeking to improve diplomatic relations as part of his ultimate goal to reunite the Korean peninsula. To that end, several cooperation projects have been announced, including a bid to co-host the 2032 Olympics.

DW editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it here.</s>A South Korea train rolled past the demilitarized zone into North Korea on Friday, marking the first time it's been done in more than a decade.

Aboard was a team of rail experts from the South that will be inspecting ways for the North to modernize its rail network in hopes that someday both countries will connect, making travel and trade easier across the border.

The weekslong inspections represent one of the most significant goodwill gestures between the Koreas in past months as they push ahead with engagement.

The plan to modernize North Korea’s outdated railways and roads came from the historic meeting between the two country’s leaders in April, in which North Korea’s Kim Jong-un asked for help with updating the country’s “embarrassing” railway network.

"Through the railways that will be connected in one, the South and North will prosper together and peace in the Korean Peninsula will become firmer," South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said during a ceremony at Dorasan Station near the border. "We will maintain close consultation with related nations so that the project to connect the South and North's railways could proceed with international support."

The South Korean engineers boarded the train in Dorasan, just north of Seoul, on Friday morning. A banner displayed across the train described it as an “Iron Horse” running towards an era of peace and prosperity, the BBC reported.

At Panmum Station, near the town of Kaesong, a North Korean engine took over to pull the train further north.

According to plans outlined by Cho's ministry, Korean officials will begin by surveying a 248-mile railroad section between Kaesong and Sinuiju that cuts through the North's central region and northeastern coast.

From Dec. 8 to 17, the Koreas will inspect a 497-mile railway section along the country's eastern coast, stretching from an area near the scenic Diamond Mountain to a riverside station near the North's border with Russia.

During the surveys, a North Korean train engine will pull six South Korean cars — including passenger and sleeping cars, a power-generator car and a fuel tanker — to test operability.

The Unification Ministry said the North will attach its own cars to the engine, but it was unclear how many. Fifty-six South Korean officials will participate in the surveys, 28 each for the inspections on the western and eastern sections, the ministry said.

The Koreas plan to hold a groundbreaking ceremony by the end of the year on an ambitious project to connect their railways and roads as agreed by their leaders. But beyond surveys and tape-cuttings, the Koreas cannot move much further along without the removal of U.S.-led sanctions against the North, which isn't likely before it takes firmer steps toward relinquishing its nuclear weapons and missiles.

Also on Friday, an official from Seoul's Defense Ministry said the North and South Korean militaries completed removing 20 front-line guard posts and landmines from a border area where they plan to start their first-ever joint search for remains of soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

The joint railway surveys were on hold before the U.N. Security Council on Saturday granted an exemption to sanctions that allowed them to proceed. Seoul initially said the joint surveys wouldn't violate U.N. sanctions but later said that Washington had different views and the two sides had discussed the matter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>South Korean Train Heads To The North For The First Time In More Than A Decade

South Korean trains crossed over into North Korea on Friday for the first time in a decade. South Korea is pushing to link the two countries' railways, despite stalled talks on the nuclear issue.</s>A South Korean train rolled across the heavily militarized frontier into North Korea for the first time in a decade on Friday, as Seoul pushed ahead with a plan to reunite the two railway networks despite heavy U.N. sanctions.

The train pulled six cars carrying dozens of South Korean officials and experts, who will undertake an 18-day, 750-mile survey of railway tracks in the North. The journey required special permission from the United Nations to carry equipment and fuel into the North despite the sanctions regime.

Seoul plans to hold a ground-breaking ceremony before the end of the year on a plan to establish road and rail links between the two Koreas, first agreed upon by the countries’ two leaders at a summit in April. But the project can’t go beyond symbolic gestures to become reality unless sanctions are lifted.

Nevertheless, with talks between the United States and North Korea stalling, the government in Seoul is keen to show progress in its own peace process with Pyongyang.

“The inter-Korean railway connection project is intended to overcome division and open a new future of the Korean Peninsula,” Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said at a ceremony at Dorasan Station near the border, according to pool reports.

“Through the one connected railway, the South and the North will prosper together and the ground for peace on the Korean Peninsula will be consolidated,” he said. “The train crossing the Korean peninsula will carry peace and prosperity to northeast Asia and the world.”

Cho also promised to maintain close consultation “with related nations” — in other words, the United States — so that the project proceeds with international support.

After whistling twice, the South Korean train slowly traveled toward North Korea’s Panmun Station, near the town of Kaesong, where the cars would be reconnected to a North Korean engine.

The survey will run in two stages. The first will go through central North Korea and along the northwestern coast to the city of Sinuiju near the Chinese border. The second phase will go from an area near the Mount Kumgang tourist region and along the east coast up to a riverside station near the border with Russia. The train will include passenger and sleeping cars as well as a power-generator car and a fuel-tank.

“You will visit train stations and cross hills and rivers in North Korea no outsiders have visited,” Cho told the survey team.

Freight services ran between the two Koreas from December 2007 until November 2008 to support factories in a joint economic zone at Kaesong in North Korea. But the line was cut in 2008 and the Kaesong park eventually closed in 2016 as relations deteriorated.

The contrast between North Korea’s slow and decrepit network and the South’s gleaming bullet trains could hardly be greater. During his April meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un admitted the railways in his country were in an “embarrassing” state.

Moon has since outlined ambitious plans to set up an East Asian Railway community, as a first step towards the sort of regional economic integration Europe established after World War II.

Seoul wanted the railway survey to take place earlier this year, but the plan was initially blocked by the U.S.-led United Nations Special Command in South Korea.

Strains have emerged in the relationship between Seoul and Washington over how to handle North Korea, with some members of the U.S. administration worried that South Korea is moving too fast down the path of rapprochement, and some South Koreans frustrated that the United States is making unreasonable demands of Pyongyang, as they see it, while maintaining harsh sanctions.

Min Joo Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.

As clock ticks, South Korea looks for a leap of faith from Washington over North Korea

S Korean leader wants rail, road links with North as first step toward economic integration

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news</s>SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean train Friday crossed into North Korea for the first time in a decade, as the two countries began a joint study on renovating the North’s decrepit rail system and linking it to the South’s.

Over the next 18 days, dozens of officials and engineers from both Koreas will live and work on the six-car train, traveling more than 1,600 miles as they study the North’s rail network and consider what it would take to bring it up to international standards. The train rolled north across the countries’ heavily armed border Friday morning.

The joint study “signals that inter-Korean cooperation is reaching a new level,” said Kim Eui-kyeom, the spokesman for President Moon Jae-in of South Korea.

The study is one of a number of collaborative projects that Moon has championed to develop closer ties with the North and demonstrate what economic benefits the country could gain from giving up nuclear weapons. When Moon and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, met for the first time in April, the South agreed to help rebuild the North’s railroads and highways, which Kim said were in “embarrassing” shape.

But whether that happens will depend on progress in ridding the North of its nuclear arms. International sanctions imposed on the North over its weapons program forbid the kind of significant investment from the South that such infrastructure work would entail. Even bringing in the fuel and equipment needed to carry out the joint rail study required special approval from the United Nations Security Council.

The two Koreas last conducted such research in 2007, when they carried out a limited field study on a rail line in western North Korea. They connected short stretches of railway across their border that year.

A South Korean cargo train ran five times a week on one of those short cross-border routes until 2008, when the countries’ relations began to sour over the North’s pursuit of nuclear arms. Plans for further connections between the two rail systems were suspended.

On Friday, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon and other South Korean officials sent off the study team during a brief ceremony at the Dorasan train station near the border with the North.

“You will visit train stations and cross hills and rivers in North Korea no outsiders have visited before,” said Cho, according to pool reports from South Korean journalists. “By reconnecting our railways, South and North Korea will be able to prosper together and make peace on the Korean Peninsula more solid.”

The Koreas’ rail lines have been severed since the 1950-53 Korean War. Moon hopes that reconnecting them will be a step toward economic integration and, eventually, reunification.

But while Moon has been eager to pursue such projects, the United States is adamant that the South refrain from significant economic collaboration with the North until it takes major steps toward denuclearization. The apparent discord raised fears of a rift in the alliance.

South Korea’s proposal to conduct the rail study was thwarted earlier this year by American concerns that it could violate U.N. sanctions. But last week, Washington and Seoul launched a joint working group to better coordinate their interactions with North Korea, and the United States signed off on the rail study.

Moon has said he agrees with the Trump administration that major economic cooperation with the North can begin only after sanctions have been lifted. He plans to meet with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit conference in Argentina this weekend to discuss how to break a stalemate in the denuclearization talks between North Korea and the United States.

South Korea, whose only land border is with the North, has long dreamed of building a trans-Korean railroad that could provide a link to China and beyond. That would give it a faster way to ship exports that are now sent by sea to China and Europe, and to bring in Russian oil and other natural resources.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times</s>SALT LAKE CITY — A South Korean train is entering North Korea for the first time since 2007.

What’s going on: According to BBC News, the train will carry a team of South Korean specialists through the Demilitarized Zone and into North Korea to assess the state of the rail system.
• The team will work to see what needs to be done in order to bring North Korea’s rails to an international standard and make it possible to reopen the rail between the two countries, The New York Times reported.
• As reported by The Washington Post, the trip will consist of two stages. First, the specialists will survey the central to northwestern rail. Then they will travel near the Mount Kumgang tourist region and up the east coast to a station near the Russian border.
• “You will visit train stations and cross hills and rivers in North Korea no outsiders have visited,” Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told the survey team, according to the Washington Post.
• According to CNN, President Moon Jae-in has “long dreamed” of building a trans-Korean railroad because of the economic benefits that would result in being more easily connected to China and Russia. The railway would also be a huge step in the relationship between the two countries.

Complications: The Washington Post reported that in order for the trip to happen, South Korea had to receive special permission from the UN due to sanctions that are currently in place on North Korea.
• According to CNN, the team was given strict instruction that any food, fuel or water remaining at the end of the trip must return with them to South Korea.
• Unless the North follows through on denuclearization, the sanctions will prevent the South from providing further resources to update the rail system, per The New York Times.

The history of the inter-Korean railways: Before the Korean War, two rail systems connected the northern and southern parts of the Korean Peninsula, per AFP.
• In 2007, a western rail was reconnected and a South Korean train ran between the two countries five times a week, according to The New York Times.
• The cross-border route was discontinued in 2008 when the relationship between the North and South grew worse due to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, per The New York Times.</s>TOKYO — A South Korean train rolled across the heavily militarized frontier into North Korea for the first time in a decade Friday, as Seoul pushed ahead with a plan to reunite the two railway networks despite heavy U.N. sanctions.

The train pulled six cars carrying dozens of South Korean officials and experts, who will undertake an 18-day, 750-mile survey of railway tracks in the North. The journey required special permission from the United Nations to carry equipment and fuel into the North despite the sanctions regime.

Seoul plans to hold a groundbreaking ceremony before the end of the year on a plan to establish road and rail links between the two Koreas, first agreed upon by the countries’ two leaders at a summit in April. But the project can’t go beyond symbolic gestures to become reality unless sanctions are lifted.

Nevertheless, with talks between the United States and North Korea stalling, the government in Seoul is keen to show progress in its own peace process with Pyongyang.

“The inter-Korean railway connection project is intended to overcome division and open a new future of the Korean Peninsula,” Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said at a ceremony at Dorasan Station near the border, according to pool reports. “Through the one connected railway, the South and the North will prosper together and the ground for peace on the Korean Peninsula will be consolidated,” he said. “The train crossing the Korean Peninsula will carry peace and prosperity to northeast Asia and the world.”

Cho also promised to maintain close consultation “with related nations” – in other words, the United States – so that the project proceeds with international support.

After whistling twice, the South Korean train slowly traveled toward North Korea’s Panmun Station, near the town of Kaesong, where the cars would be reconnected to a North Korean engine.

The survey will run in two stages. The first will go through central North Korea and along the northwestern coast to the city of Sinuiju near the Chinese border.

The second phase will go from an area near the Mount Kumgang tourist region and along the east coast up to a riverside station near the border with Russia.

The train will include passenger and sleeping cars as well as a power-generator car and a fuel tank.

Freight services ran between the two Koreas from December 2007 until November 2008 to support factories in a joint economic zone at Kaesong in North Korea. But the line was cut in 2008 and the Kaesong park eventually closed in 2016 as relations deteriorated.
A South Korean train arrives towards Panmun Station and crosses the DMZ border for the first time since 2008, when a South Korean cargo train operated five times a week.