Russia opens rail corridor to link Europe and East Asia
16 Oct 2013
Russia last month completed work on the 54-km rail link between Khasan in Russia's south-eastern corner and North Korea's rebuilt port of Rajin, bringing eastern Asia and Europe closer.
The reinstatement of the railway line from Khasan in Russia to Rajin in the Rason Special Economic Zone and further to the border at Tumangang in North Korea was announced at a ceremony held on 22 September.
A further push into South Korea would help reunite the railway systems of the two Koreas and link them to Russia's Trans-Siberian Railway.
The 54-km rail link, reinstated at a cost of more than 5·5 billion roubles, would facilitate running of 1520 mm and 1435 mm gauge trains; and another 3·5 billion roubles were spent in developing the port terminal to handle 4 million tonnes of cargo per year.
The project followed an agreement between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and Russian President Vladimir Putin in August 2001 to reconstruct the Trans-Korean Railway.
Subsequently, Russian Railways (RZhD or Rossiyskie zheleznye dorogi) and North Korea's ministry of railways signed a co-operation agreement in 2008, and work began at Tumangang in October 2008.
And, in August 2009, the RasonKonTrans joint venture of RZhD subsidiary Russian Railways Trading Company and the Port of Rason leased the Tumangang-Rajin line from North Korea's ministry of railways for 49 years.
The project involved restoration of 18 bridges, 12 culverts and three tunnels with a combined length of more than 4·5 km, as well as laying four-rail dual gauge track.
Work on the transfer terminal at the port is nearing completion, along with quay, storage areas, industrial and office buildings. A single control centre will manage future operations on the line.
The reinstated rail line ''will become a transport route of friendship, promoting joint economic and transportation development for our countries and the well-being of our people'', said North Korea's minister of railways Jon Kil Su.
''It will be a reliable international transport hub, connecting Asia and Europe,'' he added.
The rail link, a pet project of President Vladimir Putin, aims at turning Russia into a major transit route for trade between eastern Asia and Europe.
The rail link will also help circumvent the circuitous sea route via Suez Canal.
This is also the only project in which North Korea's Stalinist regime has cooperated with the outside world over half a century of its isolation.
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