Commuter Train Service to Gaeseong to Begin Next Year
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Commuter train service between South and North Korea will begin next year to help employees working at a joint industrial site in Gaeseong, North Korea, according to the Ministry of Unification Sunday.
The agreement was struck at a two-day meeting of the Gaeseong complex cooperation committee which ended Saturday.
The two sides also agreed to build dormitories to accommodate North Korean workers who have difficulties commuting to the site every day.
``A commuter train will be operated from Munsan in South Korea to Gaeseong in North Korea via Panmunjeom Station, which both South and North Koreans can use for their commute,'' a ministry official said.
The official added the two Koreas will determine how and when to operate the train through further negotiations.
So far, South Korean workers have commuted to their workplace by car while North Korean workers have done by packed buses, bicycles or on foot.
Railways, already connected the two sides as part of ongoing rapprochement efforts, are just being used for limited cargo services to the industrial park from this month.
Under the agreement, Seoul will construct dormitories to lodge about 15,000 North Korean workers to help provide the industrial park with labor forces at the appropriate time.
As the industrial complex is expected to achieve growth, more workers will likely be required on the scene.
Seoul plans to retrieve the money spent on building the lodgings over a long period of time by receiving rent fees from companies stationed at the site.
The two Koreas also agreed to adopt an electronic admission system to cut time of immigration control, the ministry said.
It will take about five seconds to allow workers to pass the border with the new system using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, which is currently taking at least 30 seconds, it said.
Freight process will be reduced from sixty seconds to fifty seconds, it added.
The two sides will operate the RFID system from the first half of next year.
The meeting was set up to discuss details on an agreement made during prime ministers' talks and high-level economic cooperation talks held last month.
In previous talks, the two sides agreed to cooperate in solving three problems regarding boarder passing, telecommunication and customs procedure.