MOSCOW, November 18 (Itar-Tass) — The president of the Russian Railways Company, Vladimir Yakunin, has expressed confidence that it is expedient to develop a rail link with North Korea’s port of Rajin.
“We know well that the throughput capacities of the port of Vladivostok are restricted, while Rajin is located close and we have our rail gauge (1,520mm) there,” he told the railway congress on Friday.
“It is absolutely evident that it would be economically inexpedient not to tap these opportunities. The more so, we have the relevant political conditions for this,” he said.
The first demo train has already run across the cross-border section Khasan-Rajin. At present, railway specialists have been implementing the project to reconstruct the section, build a cargo terminal in the port of Rajin and to use this infrastructure for transit shipments across the Trans-Siberian Railway.
“The project is targeted not only at repairing the railroad’s section, but at filling the port of Rajin with containers. Now we are eyeing the issue of coal shipments,” he said.
Parties consider Khasan-Rajin a pilot project within the framework of the reconstruction of the whole Trans-Korean Railway. At present, Russia and the two Koreas are conducting consultations for resuming the tripartite contacts and creating conditions for the implementation of this large-scale project.