South Korea resumes rail service to border areas with North Korea

South Korea on Friday resumed a tourist rail service to its northernmost border station near North Korea, in a move seen as part of Seoul’s efforts to support reconciliation and ease tensions between the two Koreas.

The train runs to and from Dorasan Station in the border city of Paju, Yonhap News Agency reported.

"The resumption of train service is a small starting point toward establishing everyday peace, allowing people to experience it in their daily lives," Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said at a ceremony marking the event.

"When tourists can visit, see and experience the site of peace at Dorasan Station, peace will finally become an everyday language that breathes in our lives, rather than grand discourse," he added.

The resumption comes as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has extended an olive branch to resume dialogue with North Korea since assuming office in June 2025, though Pyongyang last month formally described the South as the "most hostile state."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently acknowledged Lee’s expression of regret over a drone incursion from the South, according to earlier reports.

"Only peace and coexistence, as well as reconciliation and cooperation, are the path to mutual prosperity for the South and the North, not worthless animosity and confrontation," Chung said.

He also expressed belief that the two sides can build new relations that reflect the changing international environment and their respective national interests, adding that he hopes their railways can be reconnected in the future.