A ceremony was held at the port of Rajin in North Korea on 18 July 2014 to mark the launch of a new transshipment terminal and the start of a service to transport freight via the rail border crossing between Khasan in Russia and Tumangen in North Korea, press center of Russian Railways says.
The event was attended by Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, Jeong Gil Su, North Korea's Minister of Railways, and Michael Zaichenko, head of Far Eastern Railways, as well as by representatives of the authorities and the international business community.
According to Vladimir Yakunin, the opening of the new terminal has completed the pilot phase of the project to reconstruct the Trans-Korean Railway.
The President of Russian Railways thanked the Company's North and South Korean partners for their cooperation.
North Korea's Minister of Railways Jeong Gil Su in turn thanked Russian Railways for its cooperation and congratulated all the partners, railway staff and building workers on the successful opening of the new terminal and noted that the joint infrastructure project took the cooperation between the two countries to a higher level.
"Thanks to the opening of the transshipment terminal at the port of Rajin, a new international transport corridor linking Europe and Asia has been created which will contribute greatly to the economic development of countries," said Jeong Gil Su.
The work was carried out by the Russian-Korean joint venture RasonKonTrans, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, OJSC RZD Trading House Railways, and the port of Rajin.
The terminal is a modern high-tech multi-functional complex capable of handling up to 5 million tons of freight per annum. During the initial stage it is planned to transport coal and other bulk cargoes to the port at Rajin.
In addition to handling and storage, the terminal is also able to separate metal magnetically from coal and according to specific client requests sort it in accordance with the quality of the shipping parties.
During this international visit, Vladimir Yakunin also held a bilateral working meeting with North Korean Minister of Railways Jeong Gil Su to discuss prospects of further cooperation.
Russian Railways is now beginning to work together with a consortium of South Korean companies (POSCO, HMM and KORAIL) to develop a mechanism for the further implementation of the project in the format of trilateral cooperation. In the future, this will allow the resumption of direct rail communication on the Korean peninsula with access to the Trans-Siberian Mainline.