Trans-Korean Railway

Trans-Korean Railway (TKR, 한반도 종단철도/韓半島縱斷鐵道) is a project to construct railways in the Korean Peninsula which are expected to be connected with Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) or Trans-Manchurian Railway (TMR). It is one of the promising revenue-generating infrastructure projects in the territory of North Korea which attract global interests.

Key words
TKR, TSR, Trans-Korean Pipeline, revenue generation

Proposed projects under multilateral discussions
In August 2011, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited a hydroelectric power plant in Amur, Russia. It was just three months after agreeing with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on the development of the Rason and Hwanggumpyong special economic zones during a visit to China in May 2011.

It was highlighted that Russia had promised to transmit surplus electricity to North Korea in exchange for something special - that could be the proposed project to build up the Trans-Korean Railway and/or Pipeline.

Trans-Korean Railway project
In the first stage, the Russian builders proposed to complete the 54-kilometre long section of the Trans-Korean Railway from the Russian township of Hasan to the North Korean Port Rajin.

To maximize the efficiency of freight transportation, it is necessary as the next step to extend the railway to Seoul or Busan via Wonsan. This will be the real "trans-Korean railway".

Trans-Korean Pipeline project
During a summit meeting with Kim Jong-il at Ulan-Ude near Lake Baikal in August 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reportedly discussed the construction of a pipeline that will send natural gas from Sakhalin island to South Korea.

Since his first inter-Korean summit in 2000, Kim Jong-il has, on several occasions, made remarks suggesting he, too, expects the pipeline to be built. The project, if completed, coulod bring the North as much as $100 million in revenue annually as well as much needed energy at a cheap price.

The pipeline initiative was agreed to by President Lee Myung-bak and Medvedev at a summit in Moscow in 2008. Soul can expect a huge eonomic benefit as it would receive gas from Russia on a cheap and stable basis. Gas accounts for one-seventh of its energy consumption.

Prospects
Despite such potential benefits among all related parties, the project seems hard to go further due to the North's belligerent attitude toward the South and its allies. As long as there is the possibility that the gas supply would be interrupted by the North for political or military reasons, it is difficult for Seoul to put a final stamp on the deal.

It's hard to expect a rosy scenario unless trilateral economic cooperation is fully activated so that TKR or Trans-Korean Pipeline is successfully connected to the TSR or Siberial gas wells.