Korean Peninsula Diplomacy: Multi-billion dollar railway to run through ROK and DPRK

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02:47

South Korea has outlined a multi-billion dollar rail infrastructure project it would like to roll out in the DPRK if relations can be rekindled. It could help boost the economy as well as link the south to the rest of the world by rail. CGTN's Jack Barton took a train ride on a line that would form the first link if the project happens.

The train from Seoul to Pyongyang, at least that was the hope when this historic line, halted during the Korean War, was upgraded a decade and a half ago.

JACK BARTON ABOARD TRAIN FROM SEOUL TO DORASAN STATION "The tracks beneath this train still run to Pyongyang and beyond. The only thing that has derailed the journey so far is failed diplomacy."

Some passengers are hopeful they might one day ride further.

BAEK HYUNG-KI PASSENGER "I have never been to Pyongyang, but if we are unified I want to go to the city because it is the city I have always wanted to visit."

Others like Han Bo-yeong, who fled the north in her youth says she has no desire to go further and doubts Pyongyang's current sincerity.

HAN BO-YEONG PASSENGER "I can't believe it, because we have been fooled."

President Moon Jae-in believes Pyongyang is serious this time and wants to ensure talks lead to action.

JACK BARTON ABOARD TRAIN FROM SEOUL TO DORASAN STATION "During his summit with Kim Jong-un, Moon Jae-in reportedly handed him a thumb drive containing the blueprint for a 35 billion U.S. dollar rail infrastructure upgrade that would initially link Seoul to Pyongyang before moving onto the wider D.P.R.K. rail network including links to Russia and China."

Having picked up a security escort, whose faces we are not allowed to film, we enter the restricted zone, crossing a bridge with a clear view of the old one that was destroyed during the war before arriving at Dorasan Station, a few hundred metres from the DMZ. I must confess to feeling a bit sentimental.

JACK BARTON DORASAN STATION "I was here back in 2007 when the very first freight train since the war rolled out of this station to the joint industrial complex on the northern side of the D.M.Z. Back then, as now, hopes were running high, but it only lasted a year before a diplomatic row between Seoul and Pyongyang shut the service down."

These days it's only tour groups who visit.

JACK BARTON DORASAN STATION "The tourists who visit this station and ride the train don't really pay the bills, not even close. This is a political station and the message is very clear 'this is not the last station from the south but the first station towards the north'. Jack Barton for CGTN at Dorasan Station."