ROK, DPRK hold groundbreaking rail, road connection ceremony

The ROK's Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mee said the two Koreas took a step forward for peace and prosperity on the peninsula as the railway and road connection across the border would have a meaning of physical connection beyond.

She said the connection would facilitate exchanges across the border and widen inter-Korean economic cooperation, benefits from which would be shared by the two Koreas, noting that increased exchanges and cooperation would consolidate peace on the peninsula further.

From the DPRK side, Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, and four other high-level officials participated in the event.

Attendees from the ROK side included Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, Lee Hae-chan, chief of the ruling Democratic Party, and other parliamentary leaders.

Following the speeches, the ROK transport minister and the DPRK railway minister had a signing event on the concrete sleeper that could be used for rails in future construction works.

About 10 officials of the two sides linked meters of track as a celebratory function, followed by the disclosure of a signpost that reads Seoul on the left side and Pyongyang on the right.

Among other ROK invitees were five civilians, who have families in the DPRK separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War, and the last locomotive engineer who drove the train between Kaesong and Munsan, a ROK city just south of the border with the DPRK, for about one year until December 2008.