By Kim Se-jeong
The government’s railway project near the inter-Korean border is drawing opposition from civic activists who say the project will destroy the habitat of red-crowned cranes, an endangered species.
Environmental groups claim the government has promoted the project without a due review process regarding the environmental effect.
The project in question is to restore Gyeongwon Line, an old railway connecting Yongsan in Seoul and Wonsan, a North Korean city in the east coast. The 223.7-kilometer railroad, which began operation in 1914, has been blocked since the Korean War.
The railroad in South Korean territory is now available from Yongsan Station to Baengmagoji Station in Cherwon, Gangwon Province, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to extend it 9.3 kilometers toward the border to Woljeongni Station in a village just outside the demilitarized zone (DMZ).
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held earlier next month to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan in 1945. The construction is expected to be completed in 2017.
Activists say the government is hastily promoting the project to launch it on the Liberation Day, while the region is environmentally important as red-crowned cranes spend their winters there.
“There have been cases that the government ignored the results of environmental impact study, which is a must prior to such a big project, but it is the first time for the government to push ahead with construction even before the results come in,” Seo Jae-cheol, an activist from Green Korea, an NGO, said.
“The construction will generate a lot of noise and disturbance. The noise will eventually make the birds leave the area,” he said. “The government should serious consider the project’s impact on the ecosystem in the border area.”
The activist recommended the government make parts of the railway underground. “That way, the noise will be significantly reduced,” Seo said.
A ministry official said the project will go on regardless of the environmental impact study results. “Instead, we may change parts of the plans according to recommendations from the study to minimize potential damage to the environment,” he said.
The population of mature red-crowned cranes worldwide is estimated at 1,650, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It has put the cranes on its Red List of Threatened Species. In Korea, they are on the lists of endangered wildlife and natural monuments.
Red-crowned cranes are native to China, Japan, Koreas, Mongolia and part of Russia. They migrate to the border area from Russia and north of the Korean peninsula during winter.