June 16, 2007 (LPAC) – Vladimir Yakunin, president of the state-run Russian Railways, said that Russia will begin participation in modernizing the North Korean Railroad this year, Novosti reported today. Yakunin, speaking today in Vladivostok, said: "The restoration of the Khasan (Russia)-Nadjin (North Korea) section of the [Trans-]Korean Railway will start before the end of this year. RZD has already reached agreement with the North Korean authorities on the reconstruction in this stretch." The two sides have also agreed to seek foreign investment for the project, in tripartite negotiations among Russia, North Korea, and South Korea. The project will finally link the Trans-Korean Railroad with the Trans-Siberian Railroad. On May 17, North and South Korean trains made the first rail crossings of their joint border in over 50 years.

The project has been under discussion since August 2001, when North Korean leader Kim Jong-il travelled (by rail) to Moscow, to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, after Putin had visited Pyongyang a year earlier.

Such projects have suffered complications and delays because of the nuclear conflict with North Korea, but recently, despite continued technical difficulties in North Korea repatriating funds which had been held in a bank in Macau, there are indications that the resolution of the Korean nuclear tensions could be resolved. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, now in Mongolia, said that the fund transfer was being completed, and that the Six Party Talks on Korea – involving North and South Korea, China, Russia, the United States and Japan – could be resumed in Beijing either in June or July, Yonhap news service reported. Today, the North Korean Central News Agency reported that Pyongyang has sent a letter to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency saying "that a working-level delegation of the IAEA has been invited to visit (North Korea) as it is confirmed that the process of de-freezing the funds of (North Korea) at the Banco Delta Asia in Macau has reached its final phase." The IAEA is invited for "discussions of the procedures of the IAEA's verification and monitoring of" shutting down its Yongbyon reactor, AP reported.