Putin and Kim Jong Il are clearing mines from the border that has been separating North and South Korea for more than half a century. And at the same time, they will load the Trans-Siberian Railway with powerful cargo flows, which will bring Russia 3 billion dollars annually. "We detail...

P

Utin and Kim Jong Il "clear mine" the border that has been separating North and South Korea for more than half a century. And at the same time, they will load the Trans-Siberian Railway with powerful cargo flows, which will bring Russia 3 billion dollars annually.

"M

We discussed in detail all the issues related to the connection of the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Korean highways, ”Putin told reporters very little information about the meeting with the North Korean leader in the Far East, for which he crossed the whole country.

The reason is that the real connection of the Trans-Siberian Railway with the Trans-Korean Railway is still far away. Firstly, North Korea and South Korea cannot be called good neighbors, the railway communication between them was interrupted more than half a century ago, since the war. Secondly, the length of the Trans-Korean Railway is 930 kilometers from the Khasan station of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the demarcation line with South Korea, of which 30 kilometers have been completely dismantled. A multi-kilometer zone between North and South Korea is mined. Initially, specialists from the Ministry of Railways of Russia stated that the reconstruction of the Trans-Korean Railway and its connection to the Trans-Siberian Railway could take about two years.

Then, after a business trip to the DPRK, the ardor faded. The North Korean railway needs to be restored from scratch and at least five years, Russian railway workers say, since in its current state the main line does not meet modern requirements, trains move along it at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour.

But this transport scheme for the delivery of goods from South Korea through the North along the Trans-Siberian Railway, not by sea, but by rail, reduces the transportation time from an average of thirty to fifteen days and reduces their cost. Allows you to fully load the Transsib. It will finally help to defuse the tense situation on the Korean Peninsula, which is now divided by a four-kilometer strip of mines that separated friends, relatives and people in the last century.

The Republic of Korea, by the way, has repeatedly expressed its readiness to reunite the Trans-Korean highway. She even organized a "train of friendship" that stopped in front of a minefield. The DPRK does not refuse our money and our assistance in the restoration of the highway.

And the fact that matter and the accumulation of capital are primary for politicians in this construction of the century is not so important. It is important that political and economic interests seem to coincide with human ones.