Unification hopes as Korean trains cross border

TRAINS from North and South Korea crossed the heavily armed border yesterday, restoring for the first time an artery severed in the 1950-1953 fratricidal war and fanning dreams of unification.

“Today the heart of the Korean peninsula will start beating again,” South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said before the crossing. “The trains represent the dreams, the hopes and the future of the two Koreas.”

It took the countries 56 years to send the trains — one starting in the south and one in The trains carried 100 South Koreans and 50 North Koreans — including celebrities, politicians and a South Korean conductor from one of the last trains to cross before the rail link was cut in 1951.