South Korea to resume stalled railway project to North Korea

South Korea will resume construction next year on a railway section connecting Seoul and North Korea's eastern Wonsan city, reviving a project halted for a decade amid frozen relations with Pyongyang.

The South Korean Unification Ministry said in a briefing to President Lee Jae Myung on Wednesday that construction work is scheduled to be completed in 2029, Yonhap News reported.

The project was launched in 2015 but suspended in 2016 after cross-border ties froze.

In 2024, North Korea destroyed road and rail links across the heavily fortified border as part of its drive to redefine South Korea as a hostile ‌state.

The ministry briefed Lee on its major policy plan that centers on peaceful conflict resolution and crisis management and a long-term push toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and peace in Northeast Asia.

It also raised the need to stop calling North Korea "main enemy," as part of steps to seek peaceful coexistence with Pyongyang in an effort to revive long-frozen inter-Korean relations.

Currently, South Korea uses "North Korea" rather than its official name, as Seoul does not recognize the two Koreas as separate states under the 1991 inter-Korean Basic Agreement.

The ministry wants to revive the 2018 inter-Korean military tension reduction pact, and use the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas in a "peaceful" manner.

The ministry also plans to revise rules governing the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, which would allow spending on peace economic zones, private unification projects, and North Korea studies.