The Road Where Jeong Ju-young Led His Cattle... A Symbol of the Blown-up Inter-Korean Cooperation [News Seolcham]

(41) From Inter-Korean Reconciliation and Cooperation to Symbol of Inter-Korean Severance
Road Opened for Japanese Exploitation and Military Supply Transport
Land Route Connected through Inter-Korean Basic Agreement and Summits
Repeated Closures and Restorations with Changes in Inter-Korean Relations

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Following the removal of railway tracks, North Korea has also carried out road demolitions, severing the Gyeongui Line and Donghae Line that once connected South and North Korea. The Gyeongui Line refers to the 499 km railway stretching from Seoul through Kaesong and Pyongyang to Sinuiju in North Korea, while the Donghae Line, opened in 1937, is a 180 km railway connecting Yangyang in Gangwon Province to Wonsan in North Korea, including the Geumgangsan section. As the railways and roads linking the two Koreas symbolized inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation, they remain etched in the public memory as the backdrop of significant moments in modern history such as summits, cattle drives to the North, and Geumgangsan tourism.

Originally, the Gyeongui Line was a symbol of Japanese invasion and exploitation. In the late Joseon period, Japan established the Gyeongui Line running north to south across the Korean Peninsula to realize its continental invasion ambitions. After pressuring the Korean Empire to obtain railway construction rights, Japan hastily built the railway, committing atrocities such as cutting down trees and digging up graves without landowners' permission. After the Gyeongui Line was completed in 1906, it was used to transport military supplies for invasions of Russia and China and to quickly move goods extracted from Joseon back to the Japanese mainland, supporting imperialist ambitions.

Honorary Chairman Chung Ju-yung of Hyundai Group loaded cows to be donated to North Korea onto a truck and set off for North Korea on June 16, 1998, passing through Imjingak and Panmunjom. [Image source=Korea Policy Broadcasting e-History Museum]

After liberation, the severed Gyeongui Line was transformed into a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation in the 1990s. The 1992 Basic Agreement between North and South Korea included an agreement to "reconnect severed railways and roads" (Chapter 3, Article 19), initiating plans to restore the Gyeongui and Donghae Lines. The restoration was actively pursued following the inter-Korean summit in June 2000, carrying great historical significance as it aimed to reconnect the divided Korean Peninsula severed by division and the Korean War. In September 2002, a simultaneous groundbreaking ceremony was held for the reconnection of the Gyeongui and Donghae railways and roads.

The Gyeongui and Donghae Lines were used as channels for inter-Korean exchanges. A representative example is the cattle drive to the North led by the late Chung Ju-yung, Honorary Chairman of Hyundai Group, which is credited with opening the door to civilian exchanges between the two Koreas. When Chairman Chung led 1,001 cattle to the North in June and October 1998, the Gyeongui Line road was not yet connected, but later, when his daughter-in-law, Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, visited Pyongyang in 2003 to attend the opening ceremony of the Chung Ju-yung Gymnasium, she used the completed Gyeongui Line road.

President Roh Moo-hyun and National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il exchanging greetings at the inter-Korean summit on October 2, 2007. [Image source=Korea Policy Broadcasting e-History Museum]

The late President Roh Moo-hyun also traveled this route for inter-Korean summits. In October 2007, President Roh crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) on foot after getting off his vehicle while traveling on the Gyeongui Line road to attend the inter-Korean summit. Additionally, the Gyeongui and Donghae Line roads served as logistics routes for Kaesong Industrial Complex companies and as transit routes for tourists visiting Geumgangsan.

Subsequently, the fate of these routes fluctuated with inter-Korean relations. Following the shooting death of a tourist at Geumgangsan in 2008, relations soured, and from late that year, operations on the connecting railways and roads were effectively suspended. However, with the inter-Korean reconciliation mood sparked by the 2018 Panmunjom summit, the two Koreas re-agreed to reconnect the Gyeongui and Donghae railways and roads.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

But at the end of last year, Chairman Kim Jong-un defined inter-Korean relations as "hostile two-state relations," leading to renewed severance of land routes between the two Koreas. According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea planted landmines on the Gyeongui and Donghae Line roads at the end of last year and removed railway rails and sleepers from the Donghae and Gyeongui Lines between May and July this year. On the 16th of this month, North Korea blew up a section of the connecting road between the Gyeongui and Donghae Lines. As a result, the only remaining land route connecting the two Koreas is the Panmunjom Joint Security Area (JSA) passage. Although there is the Arrowhead Hill Road, vehicles cannot pass, so it no longer functions as a land route.