Seoul: South Korea's national railway company is hoping to send hundreds of football fans on a World Cup special train direct to Berlin via communist North Korea and Russia, officials said on Thursday.
The plan to dispatch the train from South Korea over the Cold War's last frontier into North Korea and on to Germany via Siberia is the brainchild of Lee Chul, president of South Korea's state-run Korea Railroad (KORAIL).
But first North Korea, embroiled in a nuclear standoff with the outside world, must agree.
"The plan requires approval from North Korea, which has not yet responded to our proposal for talks," a KORAIL official said.
If North Korea agrees, the train would leave the South's southern port city of Busan and travel up the peninsula through North Korea and into Russia.
As part of reconciliation efforts, the two Koreas -- still officially at war -- have almost completed the relinking of railway lines across the four-kilometer-wide inter-Korean border which have been cut since the 1950-53 Korean War.
In a landmark accord at a summit in 2000, they agreed to reconnect one rail line on the western side of the peninsula that is linked to China and another up the eastern side that is linked to the trans-Siberian railway.
However, the standoff over North Korea's nuclear ambitions has delayed the opening of the inter-Korean railways while roads running parallel with the track are already open.
KORAIL president Lee said the World Cup special would provide an emotional launching pad for Korean World Cup hopes.
"That will be a heart-stopping moment for Koreans -- to see the train pass over their soil as they support their compatriot football players in Germany," he was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.
The South Koreans, semi-finalists in 2002, qualified for the June World Cup in Germany and are drawn in Group G with 1998 winners France, Switzerland and Togo.
North Korea failed to qualify for the Germany finals.
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