South Korea National Railroad (KORAIL) on Monday started the operation of a train carrying 350 tourists heading for Mt. Kumgang, a scenic mountain resort in DPRK.

The train is designed to promote tour packages, but passengers are still required to transfer to buses to reach the DPRK mountain as Seoul and Pyongyang have yet to re-link rails, which were severed for more than a half century.

The train authority and Hyundai Asan, the main operator of Mt. Kumgang tour packages, developed the three-day tour package.

The service is available every Monday and Friday. Travelers leave Seoul Station at 8:40 p.m. for Tonghae Station in Kangwon Province, spend the night on the train and head for Mt. Kumgang across the inter-Korean border by bus the following morning. Tourists will visit the mountain for one day, and come back to Seoul in the morning of the third day.

Hyundai Asan plans to provide a four-day program starting Nov. 20, which will allow visitors to spend one night at the mountain resort.

KORAIL said train reservations for next month are full. It is planning another service in December to take tourists from provincial areas that want to enjoy the snow-covered scenery of the mountain.

Source: Agencies