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Koreas clear political, physical minefields
DORASAN, South Korea -- Having cleared a political path to allow work to begin on a rail link between the two Koreas, both sides have set about clearing a physical path through unmarked landmines littering the site. South and North Korean troops on Thursday marched into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating their countries to begin the dangerous task of clearing minefields for the rail and road links. Reporters and dignitaries watched as 100 South Korean troops filed through a gap in the fence marking the southern limit of the border zone. Mine-clearing vehicles followed. South Korean officials said a similar event was taking place in the North. Their job is to clear a swathe of ground about 100 metres (109 yards) wide and two kilometers (1.2 miles) long to the midpoint of the DMZ while North Korean troops do the same on their side. The cleared area will then house a road, railway and power lines. "Neither of us (North or South Korea) know where the mines are," South Korean lieutenant-colonel Kim Hye-won said. "We are being very careful in consideration of the safety of troops are involved." The Cold War's last frontier was breached Wednesday as work began on a railway to link long-time rivals of the Korean Peninsula. Severed for half a century, officials from both countres expressed hope the "monumental" project would bring peace to their divided peninsula. A ceremony Wednesday amidst the fanfare of fireworks came just a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had apologized to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for the abduction of Japanese citizens. (Outrage over admission) Rail links, some built by the Japanese, have been cut since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Technically, the two Koreas are still at war because the conflict ended in a truce. "Today we are standing at the start of a new era during which the South and the North will move forward hand in hand toward the future," said South Korean Acting Prime Minister Kim Suk-soo in a speech at Dorasan Station on the west coast on Wednesday. "We are burying a history marked by the scars of war and the pain of division," Reuters news agency quoted him as saying. 'March forward'At Dorasan Train Station on the western border, the last South Korean stop on a rail line to be linked with the North, Kim Suk-soo said the project opened a new chapter in turbulent inter-Korean relations.
"We stand at the starting point of a monumental project, from which the South and the North join hands, put the war-torn history behind and march forward," he said in a nationally televised speech. Workers opened a barbed wire fence leading to the border, and a two-train car blew a whistle and moved 15 meters (yards) in a symbolic gesture. Hundreds of people applauded. North Korean Prime Minister Hong Song Nam led a ceremony on the eastern sector of the northern border. North Korea said about 3,000 people attended the ceremony, The Associated Press reported. Two transportation corridors are to be built through the four kilometer (2.5-mile)-wide no-mans zone separating the sides. If plans go smoothly, a cross-border road on the eastern sector will be re-linked as early as November and a cross-border railway on the western sector by year's end. Shifting perilShifting during decades of floods has rendered maps of the mines useless and soldiers have been killed and wounded despite well-marked paths warning of the danger. Guides on tours to the edge of the DMZ tell tourists that animals in the DMZ are limited to those too light to trigger the mines. A South Korean defence ministry spokesman said clearing the landmines would take several months, adding winter weather toward the end of the year could hamper the work. "Some of the mines are old, dating back to the Korean War, and some were placed recently," he said, according to Reuters. The rail idea was first mooted at an historic summit in June 2000 between the South's Kim Dae-jung and the North's Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang. Reuters contributed to this report.
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