The line was not yet opened when the Chōsen Southern Railway merged with five other privately owned railways to create the Chōsen Railway on 1 September 1923; Establishment of the Chosen Railway, Dong-A Ilbo, 3 September 1923 (in Korean) it was only three months after the merger, on 1 December 1923, that the first section, 24 kilometers from Masan to Gunbuk, was opened, under the name Gyeongnam Line.