'Ticket to Pyongyang, please' [PHOTOS]

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North Korea

Thu, June 21, 2018 | 04:09

'Ticket to Pyongyang, please' [PHOTOS]

Posted : 2018-06-03 16:43

Updated : 2018-06-04 10:25

Korean War veteran Ji Chang-ho shows his train ticket for Pyongyang (misspelled as Pyeongyang) at Seoul Station on June 3. He is one of 650 who booked the one-day ticket online. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Ko Dong-hwan

A train ticket from Seoul Station to Pyongyang may sound absurd on the Korean Peninsula, which has been split since the Korean War truce in 1953. But the trip almost came true on Sunday when the first "Seoul-to-Pyongyang" train departed as part of a government event in support of unification.

The one day-only "Peace Rail" train, sponsored by national operator Korail and several pro-unification political circles, did not actually head to the North Korean capital but to Dorasan Station on the Gyeongui Line in Paju, close to the inter-Korean border. The Gyeongui Line service north of Dorasan was decommissioned during the Korean War in 1951. Pyongyang is about 200 kilometers north of the station.

A woman and boy behind a mock-up replica of the Peace Rail train ― including a drawing of South Korean President Moon Jae-in ― at Seoul Station, June 3. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

About 650 tickets were sold online in advance and were issued at the station on Sunday. Those who booked the roundtrip asked for tickets to Pyongyang at a specially designed booth on the third floor right above the main ticketing zone.

The train left at 1 p.m. and travelers visited Dorasan Peace Park near Dorasan Station where a concert was held to celebrate the first issuance of such tickets since the peninsula was divided. The chartered train of 11 carriages departed for Seoul Station after five hours.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, second from left, and Gyeonggi Province Governor candidate for the June 13 local elections Lee Jae-myung show their tickets to Pyongyang at Seoul Station on June 3. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

Ji Chang-ho, 86, a Korean War veteran, came from Inje, Gangwon Province, to make the trip, proudly showing his 27,000 won ($25) ticket with no designated seat. The upper edge of the ticket says "Trans-Eurasia Railroad Ticket," symbolizing a ticket that could connect Seoul through Eurasia to Berlin.

The event marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pastor Moon Ik-hwan, who pioneered democracy and the unification movement in South Korea from 1970s until his death in 1994. Living through the Japanese Occupation Period (1910-1945), the divination scholar who translated the Old Testament of the Bible visited Pyongyang in 1989 to meet North Korean founder Kim Il-sung in a bid to ease tension between the Koreas.

Actor Moon Sung-keun greets Seoul-to-Pyongyang travelers in a special booth on the third floor of Seoul Station on June 3. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

Moon's son, actor and activist Sung-keun, printed out tickets, while Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and Minjoo Party of Korea Rep. Lee Jae-myung who is running again for the Gyeonggi Province Governor's office in the June 13 local elections happily showed their tickets.

The event came after South and North Korea begin moving cautiously toward Pyongyang's "complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization" and an end to the Korean War for good. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met at the inter-Korean Panmunjeom truce village in April and May to help build closer ties.

The road to peace extends to June 12 when Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump are scheduled to meet in Singapore to improve a relationship so far marred by the leaders' hostility toward each other.

aoshima11@ktimes.com