SEOUL, South Korea — When the two men met in April, South Korea president Moon Jae-in reportedly gave North Korea’s Kim Jong Un a thumb drive containing plans for economic cooperation between the two nations.
Among those plans, according to CityLab, were the concept for a $35 billion rail line to connect the two countries.
Initially, the plan would build a line connecting Seoul, Pyongyang, and a major crossing between North Korea and China. The ultimate goal would be a high speed line connecting the two nations, along with a rebuilding of other major North Korean routes.
North Korea’s rail lines are currently limited to a top speed of 60 mph and occasionally see rails break under heavy loads, the article reports. (Kim reportedly told his South Korean counterpart that he would be “embarrassed” to have Moon travel in North Korea because “our transportation, honestly, would be uncomfortable.”)
The South Korean plan would rebuild the North Korean lines to 60-mph standards. It would also provide connections from South Korea to Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railroad and the primary crossing between North Korea and China, creating more possibilities for trade between the Koreas, China and Europe.
The full CityLab report is available here.
[Quote] “The Korean War was never actually ended. Technically and legally, we are currently in a declared (by Congress) state of war with North Korea.”
Not true. The last time Congress declared war was WW II. Harry Truman wasn’t sure Congress would back him up on declaring war so he called what was taking place in Korea a “police action” that didn’t require (according to him) a declaration of war, and for decades it was always called the “Korean Conflict,” not the “Korean War,” although to anyone actually involved in the fighting (and not playing with words like a politician) there was absolutely no doubt this was a war.
It’s really interesting how Kim, who has a history of lying and mass murder, is suddenly a really nice guy who wants nothing but to live peacefully.
Remember all those threats? The missile launches? The atomic devices he detonated? Well, evidently, he was just joking. You know, like all the celebrities who promised to leave the US if Trump was elected. Just jokin’ around.
Seriously, people. Let’s wait a while (a few years at least) to see if Kim has really changed.
Daniel Kelly, This “game show Host” is getting more “world works” done than any of our previous President have. Give him some CREDIT, Please!!!
Interesting to note that when the Trump – North Korea summit was announced all the Dems jumped up and down saying “you can’t trust North Korea, don’t trust North Korea”. Yet when Trump bravely pulled the US out of the horrible Iran nuclear deal that Obama’s henchman Kerry foolishly negotiated those same Dems were shouting how this deal was the savior of the world and that the Iranians should be trusted to live up to their end of the deal. Ha!! I don’t trust the North Koreans and I don’t trust the Iranians but I really don’t trust the Democrats.
Hello. I am Mike Lindell, inventor of My Pillow…….
“Please keep your feedback on-topic and respectful.” Racist and bigoted comments are neither.
Wonder if South Korea would consider upgrading Pan Am Railways’ freight only mainline track to 60mph standards? 😉
GERALD MCFARLAND – ok, so let’s let China bleed money for a hundred years or so, let other countries siphon off their wealth the way everyone else has leached off the U.S. for the last two centuries. We aren’t making any more friends by trying to save all of our “buddies” (i.e. where our interests are). As a matter of fact, our enemies seem to be multiplying, as well as our debts – at what point does TRILLIONS in the negative mean bankruptcy? Again I say let the Koreans have a shot at fixing their own problems, and if that falls through, then worry about it.
President Trump sure is getting a lot done in the world. MAGA
Okay, I wanted to check what I wrote. I thought the U.S. had officially declared war on North Korea but apparently not. However, we are still party to it and it is just a long cease fire state.
Please note that US involvement in these talks is absolutely necessary and is not us playing policeman of the world. The Korean War was never actually ended. Technically and legally, we are currently in a declared (by Congress) state of war with North Korea. We just agreed to stop shooting at each other as long as both groups stayed on their side of a line drawn on a map but the war itself has never had a peace treaty to end it. Since we are part of the Korean War, we must be in the talks to end it. We were not in a current war with East or West Germany during their reunification talks so did not need to be involved.
OK all you people who made political statements. I’ll make one of my own. I didn’t notice Obama (or any other predecessor of either party) doing anything to help end the Korean War, which was fought 65 years ago. The final returns aren’t in, but with much credit to Trump, things on the Korean peninsula seem to be getting much better. As far as all you Democrats who elected the traitor Obama, I have nothing but contempt for that horrid man. Nobel Peace Prize for giving a speech! It wasn’t even a good speech, t was blather.
If you had knowledge of how the world works, you would not have elected a game show host.
Jerry Conaway
If you had knowledge of how the world works, then you would know that when we stopped playing police man to the world is when things started to go down hill, and down hill fast. We at one time had all of Asia except for China and North Korea standing behind us, almost all of South America, almost all of Europe and all of North America…now, we have almost zero and China is fast becoming the nation that others go to(which besides them improving their own economy they also gain stature in the world. What we really need is another Teddy Roosevelt, but I don’t think anyone like that would get elected today.
You can bet we’ll put money into it, probably even government money and not a single dime of private investment, but hay, why not improve North Korea’s rail infrastructure at the expense of our own.
I would hope we are not putting $ into this when we can’t even build our Hudson river tunnels………
Agree. The Germanys reunited on their own. In 1990 I boarded a train in Munich that had departed from Dresden in E Germany headed to Paris. Mixed equipment, mixed everything, including the toilet paper! But cheetohead is going to Singapore, and will take full credit for anything good that happens, and blame Obama for the things that don’t.
That’s right. Instead of Russia, China, and the U.S. hovering over them like protective parents, why don’t we see I’f these two children can work out their own problems for a change? We can’t continue to be the police force for the entire planet.