The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) called off today's trial train runs across its heavily militarized border with the Republic of Korea (ROK) yesterday, scotching plans for the first rail crossings in more than half a century.

Reconnecting the lines would have been a deeply symbolic step in generally warming ties between the two sides. The last time a train crossed the border it carried refugees and soldiers wounded in the 1950-53 Korean War.

Seoul's Vice-Unification Minister, Shin Eon-sang, said Pyongyang had cited a lack of military guarantees and the "unstable situation" in the South for its decision to cancel today's pilot runs,

"We believe it is deeply regrettable that North Korea (the DPRK) has unilaterally postponed an event that had been agreed to several times," Shin said in a statement.

He declined to say whether he thought the North's military was vetoing the project.

The North's official media said the trial was called off because of a lack of military guarantees and due to "pro-US ultra-right conservative forces' frantic acts" in the South.

Citing instances of burning of the North's flag in the South, state news agency KCNA said these forces were "pushing the situation in Korea to an extreme phase of confrontation and war."

The South is keen for trains to cross the border, but Seoul officials say the North's military has been reluctant to agree to a plan for through trains in the sensitive border area.

The test runs would have covered only a short length of track on links running along either side of the peninsula.

The western link would help shipment of goods in and out of an industrial park in Kaesong, just north of the border, where ROK firms make goods at factories using cheap DPRK labour.

The eastern link would foster tourism. A Hyundai group affiliate that runs the Kaesong park also runs a mountain resort in the North that millions of people from the South have visited.

Shin said it was too soon to conclude what this signalled for ties between the two sides.

"It is improper to pass judgment on the state of relations just from this one development", he said, describing Pyongyang's move as a postponement of the test runs.

ROK Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said later he would be open to all levels of talks with the North to resolve any differences with Pyongyang's military.

The rail links through the Demilitarized Zone a 4-kilometre wide buffer zone spanning the peninsula and a no-man's-land since 1953 run through plains and hills that are now cleared and demined but remain largely uninhabited.

Seoul has high hopes for the inter-Korea railroad, seeing it as an eventual "Iron Silk Road" stretching into China and Russia.

Seoul has provided most of the capital and material for the rail links, but while the tracks and signal system are largely complete, the trial runs are seven months behind schedule.

Source: China Daily