Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin attended a ceremony Sunday in Rason, North Korea, marking the completion of a project to rebuild the railway line linking Russia with North Korea, a spokesman for the Far Eastern Railways said.
The reconstruction of the 54-kilometer section that will link Khasan in the Russian Far East with the Rajin port in North Korea's northeastern section started in 2009.
"The project will allow restoring in future railway traffic on the entire Trans-Korean Railway," the spokesman said, adding that this will become the "shortest transport route to Europe" that could attract cargos from South Korea.
Cargo transshipment from Asia to Europe along the route will take 14 days, while sea freight shipping takes 45 days.
Under the project a total of 18 bridges have been constructed or rebuilt and three tunnels measuring more than 4.5 kilometers have been reconstructed. A container terminal at the port of Rajin that will handle the bulk shipment of coal is also expected to be built soon, a spokesman said.
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