Posted on 02/15/2008 3:49:53 PM PST by blam
Japan proposes 'peace' tunnel to South Korea
Justin McCurry in Tokyo guardian.co.uk
Friday February 15 2008
Politicians in Japan have proposed the construction of an 80-mile "peace" tunnel to South Korea that would boost trade and symbolise a recent warming of ties between the former enemies.
The proposed tunnel, more than twice as long as the Channel Tunnel, would link Karatsu in south-western Japan and Pusan in South Korea, via two islands in the Japan Sea.
It would be part of a 140-mile (230km) rail link passing through the Japanese islands of Iki and Tsushima, and making it possible to travel between Tokyo and London by train.
"This is a dream-inspiring project," Seishiro Eto, a Liberal Democratic party MP and former defence agency chief, told reporters. "We want to promote it as a symbol of peace."
The MPs will first have to persuade Tokyo and Seoul to fund a joint feasibility study. But the notion of connecting the east Asian rivals with a rail link is not as far-fetched as it would have been just a few years ago.
Japan's prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, made improving ties with Seoul a foreign policy priority when he took office last September, while South Korea's president-elect, Lee Myung-bak is expected to take a more pragmatic approach towards his country's former colonial master than his predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun.
Fukuda will attend Lee's inauguration in Seoul on February 25, with a reciprocal trip planned for April, the first visit to Japan by a South Korean president for more than three years.
Bilateral ties reached their lowest point for decades under the premiership of Junichiro Koizumi, who left office in 2006. His insistence on visiting Yasukuni, a nationalist shrine in Tokyo that honours Japan's war dead, prompted accusations in Korea that Japan
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Only if you like traveling through North Korea by train.
Who doesn’t want to drive 80 miles under the ocean floor in one of the most seismically volatile regions of the Earth? Sounds like a great idea to me.
No concern about earthquakes?
OMG Tamar is like North Korean version of Last Train of Clarksville LOL!
Seems to me a bridge would be a whole lot nicer. Nicer to look at, and nicer to travel on.
Then the Russia-Alaska tunnel will complete the project of linking everything by rail.
I hope it’s only a train tunnel. If they are planning for car traffic as well, be prepared for the Japanese ajumahs to cause a lot of vehicle accidents as well because the Japanese drive on the left side of the road, while the Koreans drive on the right (correct) side of the road.
Would be shorter, too.
I'm guessing there would be completely separated lanes; westbound on one deck, eastbound on another, or maybe even twin tunnels.
Who's fighting over Buffalo?! LOL!
Is that how they handle it in the Chunnel?
Well, not quite everything.
Australia
New Zealand
Is that how they handle it in the Chunnel?
As I understand it, no. The only thing that runs through the Chunnel is trains. Your cars get loaded on at one end and off at the other.
>>Who doesn’t want to drive 80 miles under the ocean floor in one of the most seismically volatile regions of the Earth? Sounds like a great idea to me.<<
LOL!! But it ‘s for peace!
Basically like an underground ferry. In other words, Korea could be subject to millions of middle-aged Japanese woman swooning over Yonsama sites all over Korea. Korea will be raking in the tourist $$ and the cops will be busy handing out traffic tickets. LMAO!
How abou the Last Train to Chuncheon? LOL!
Maybe just use the ferries in Hawaii that the surfers protested and stopped.
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