Train service between North and South Korea to commence

A cargo rail service between North and South Korea will be expanded to take passengers starting next year, but only South Koreans will be allowed to cross the border by train, the Unification Ministry said today.

The service, which is now limited to freight transportation between a joint venture factory park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong and Musan, just across the frontier, will also ferry workers to and from the industrial complex in 2008.

The ministry said the commuter train service will be only for those working at Kaesong. North Korean workers will be allowed to use the commuter train service, but only within North Korea.

South Korean workers currently travel to Kaesong by bus.

The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.