Korea-Japan undersea tunnel

By Nam Sang-so

Korea joined the Organization for the Cooperation of Railways (OSJD) as an affiliated member, the Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) announced on March 23.

South Korea’s repeated attempts to join the organization had failed because North Korea, a full member, vetoed the South’s application. It requires a unanimous approval for a full membership but only a two-third of the votes to gain an affiliate membership.

The so-called Silk Road Express toward Eurasia ― reaching Moscow, Berlin, Paris, London, Rome, and Madrid via ― Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) and Trans-Chinese Railway (TCR) which meets the TSR in the middle, is now open to South Korea.

This news would certainly stir Japanese politicians and railway authorities far more excitedly than those of KORAIL and rekindle the dormant issue on building an undersea tunnel.

The Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel is a proposed project to connect the two countries via crossing the Korean Strait using the strait islands of Iki and Tsushima, a straight line distance of approximately 128km at its shortest.

The Channel Tunnel that connects Kent in the United Kingdom and Calais in France at the Strait of Dover is 50.5km.

A very early discussion on such a tunnel was conducted in 1917 by then Imperial Japanese Army. Another early proposal for the project originated in the late 1930s, and was depicted a part of the Greater East Asia Railroad.

The proposal for a fixed link between the two countries has been raised in public discussions numerous times since the end of the Second World War.

By early 2002 the South Korean government had commissioned three research institutes to study the project’s feasibility.

Around that time, an easing of relations between South and North Korea gave impetus to the tunnel project. The South and North Korean governments had agreed on an inter-Korean rail line to run from Seoul to Pyongyang and then on to Sinuiju, a border city in the north on the Yalu River.

In the same year, a five-member Japanese delegation, headed by Daizo Nozawa, toured the Geoje region in South Gyeongsang province for an initial site inspection.

This visit marked a starting point on the contemplated tunnel on the South Korean side. Nozawa was then a legislator in Japan’s House of Councilors and a professional civil engineer with a Ph.D. in civil engineering.

Born in Inatomi, Nagano Prefecture, Nozawa and I attended Inatomi elementary school together during the war. He is an enthusiastic pro-Korean and loves Korean culture.

Once in February 1997 we met at an alumni meeting and Nozawa asked me to make an opening speech and lead Banzai at the end of the dinner party.

He held the post of Attorney General twice and is currently the chairman of Japan-Korea Tunnel Research Center in Japan. I’m certain that being an expert in tunnel engineering, Korean counterparts would find him easy to talk with.

He once declared that “Any engineering challenges to building the tunnel can be met with existing technologies. Far more daunting is the historic psychological barrier between the two countries. There is no better way to bring the peoples of Japan and South and North Korea together.”

Engineers in the North probably are busy calculating how much abrasions would be caused on their rails by the freight trains of the South and Japan while politicians are concerned about strong pressure from Russia and China on opening of their railways.

Unification of the peninsula might come from an unexpected prospect in railroad engineering.

The writer is a retired architect/project analyst. His email address is sangsonam@gmail.com.