The two Koreas agreed Saturday to test run rail links across their heavily fortified border, paving the way possibly for the first train services between the Cold War rivals for more than five decades.
"The North and South will carry out test runs ... on May 25," read an agreement forged between officials from the two countries at a meeting in the North Korean city of Kaesong that wrapped up early Saturday.
South Korea's unification ministry officials said a South Korean train carrying some 100 people - including both North and South Koreans - would test the Seoul-Shinuiju line in the west that links the two capitals.
The train will run on 27.3 kilometres (17 miles) of newly laid track from the South's border city of Munsan to the North's Kaesong.
Meanwhile, a similar number of people will travel in the opposite direction on a 25.5-kilometer stretch from North Korea's Mount Kumgang to South Korea's Jejin Port on the eastern coast.
"South Korea is like an island as it is cut off from the continent by the division. Opening the cross-border railways would link us to the continent by land," Yang Chang-Seok, a unification ministry spokesman, told journalists.
South Korea hopes the railways could be linked to Russia's Trans-Siberian railroad and allow an overland route connecting the Korean peninsula to Europe. Such a route would significantly cut delivery times for freight that currently travels by sea. The agreement, which was reached during two days of extended talks, came ahead of a planned trip to Pyongyang by former president Kim Dae-Jung.
Two road links running parallel with the railways have already been restored and are used for business and sightseeing in the North.