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| People ride on a subway train in Pyongyang. Sources familiar with North Korea say the Kim Jong-un regime has been using electric trains on up to 26 routes. / Korea Times file |
By Yi Whan-woo
North Korea is using trains that run on electric power instead of coal and wood on up to 26 routes across the country, according to sources familiar with Pyongyang.
This comes as the two Koreas seek to connect their railways and roads as part of efforts to speed up reconciliation.
However, the electric trains, can travel at only up to 60 kilometers per hour because of a power shortage, old tracks and other shortcomings.
"The trains can run at up to 60 kilometers per hour from Pyongyang to Sinuiju, and this is far too slow considering trains in South Korea can travel at up to 300 kilometers per hour," a source told Daily NK, an online news website about North Korea.
The electric trains are used on 26 routes across the country, including those connecting Pyongyang and Rajin, Gowon in South Hamgyong Province and Pyonggang in Gangwon Province.
Steam engines are used on 15 routes, while the ones powered by coal and wood have mostly stopped operating.
A second source attributed the increase in electric trains to international sanctions that have discouraged coal exports.
"Because the North cannot sell the coal abroad, it has been using coal for domestic purposes, such as producing electricity," it said. "This is why many trains run on electric power."
In December 2018, the two Koreas held a a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony in Gaeseong, North Korea, for an inter-Korean project to modernize and reconnect roads and railways across their heavily armed border.
Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mee, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, parliamentary leaders and other road and railway officials and experts were among the South Korean delegation.
Ri Son-gwon, chairman of North Korea's state agency in charge of inter-Korean ties, and Vice Railway Minister Kim Yun-hyok led the North Korean side.
Officials from the United Nations and neighboring countries, including Russia, China and Mongolia, also joined the ceremony, amid hope that it could be a start to connect the inter-Korean railway to the Trans Siberian Railway to create a transport route all the way to Europe.
The South received sanctions exemptions on materials and items needed to hold the ceremony after close consultations with Washington.
The ceremony was in line with agreements reached between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their first summit in April. They agreed on a project aimed at fostering balanced development and co-prosperity on the Korean Peninsula.
During their third summit in September, Moon and Kim also promised to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the project before the year's end.
Meanwhile, the ceremony is regarded as a symbolic launch of the road and railway project, not the actual start of construction considering the ongoing denuclearization talks and multilayered sanctions on North Korea.
