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Russia, NKorea to start railroad reconstruction - RZD CEO

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VLADIVOSTOK, June 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will participate in modernizing the North Korean Railroad, the president of Russian Railways (RZD), a railroad transportation giant, said Saturday.

"The restoration of the Khasan (Russia)-Nadjin (North Korea) section of the [Trans-]Korean Railway will start before the end of this year. RZD has already reached agreement with the North Korean authorities on the reconstruction in this stretch," Vladimir Yakunin said.

Russia and North Korea previously agreed to attract foreign investment for the project.

Negotiations on the reconstruction of the Trans-Korean Railroad were conducted within the framework of tripartite consultations between Russia, North Korea, and South Korea.

Earlier, South Korea proposed that North Korea and Russia invite other states to discuss financial problems of linking the Trans-Korean Railroad with the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

RZD has been negotiating the reconstruction of the eastern sector of the Trans-Korean Railroad and its linkup to the Trans-Siberian Railroad for the past few years. The problem was brought up in August 2002, when Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il discussed the idea of linking up the South and North Korean railroads to create an uninterrupted railroad from the Far Eastern ports to western Europe.

In May, two trains made the first rail crossings between North and South Korea since the 1951-1953 Korean War, in a historic link-up.

The two Koreas have been striving to improve relations since the breakthrough six-nation talks in February, involving North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, when Pyongyang agreed to dismantle its nuclear program for aid, energy supplies and security guarantees.

The trains carried 150 passengers on a test run, largely politicians and journalists from both sides, and also a conductor from one of the last trains that made the crossing before the rail link was severed in 1951.

North and South Korea re-linked their railways on June 14, 2003 on two sections of a 4 kilometer demilitarization zone, which divides the peninsula along the 38th parallel.

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