Seoul — North and South Korea held talks on Tuesday on connecting the railways that run across their border, a physical link that would transform the relationship between the two sides of the divided peninsula. The discussions, the first on the issue for a decade, took place in the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarised zone that divides the countries. The two sides agreed to conduct a joint-study "at an early date" on modernising the railways that run through their border, Yonhap News Agency reported the South’s unification ministry as saying. A rail line already exists from Seoul to Pyongyang and on to Sinuiju on the Chinese border. Linking the two systems and modernising the North’s ageing rail infrastructure would give trade-dependent South Korea a land route to the markets of China, Russia and Europe. Divisions But doing so would represent a fundamental change on the peninsula: there has been no direct civilian communication between the two Koreas since their division ...
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