MUNSAN, South Korea (CNN) — In the latest sign of reconciliation between the two Koreas, a pair of passenger trains crossed in opposite directions between North and South on Thursday — the first to make the journey through the heavily militarized frontier in more than half a century.
The trains, crossing from opposite sides of the divided peninsula, carried Korean passengers on a test run over tracks not traversed since the early 1950s, when war broke out and the rails were cut by U.S. and U.N. forces.
A two-mile wide demilitarized border separates the neighbors and travel to and from the reclusive communist North is extremely limited.
But on Thursday, passengers boarded a train at Kumgangsan Station in eastern North Korea and crossed the border to Jejin Station.
Separately, passengers at South Korea’s Munsan Station on the opposite side of the divide were sent off amid fireworks and white balloons as their train journeyed north to Kaeson Station, The Associated Press reported.
Each train carried 100 South Koreans and 50 North Koreans, according to South Korea’s state-run Yonhap news agency. The trains later returned to their homelands.
The short trips, which lasted just an hour and covered less than 20 miles of track, were hailed as a glimpse of possible future moves towards reconciliation between the two countries, which have never officially signed a peace treaty.
“It is not simply a test run. It means reconnecting the severed bloodline of our people. It means that the heart of the Korean peninsula is beating again,” said South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, AP reported.
North Korean Senior Cabinet Councilor Kwon Ho Ung said the two sides should not be “derailed from the track or hesitate” in moving towards unification, but warned of “challenges from divisive forces at home and abroad who don’t like reconciliation and unification of our people,” AP reported.
(Story from CNN; photo: Getty Images)
