WARSAW ― The Organization for Cooperation between Railways will crank up efforts to ratify a new convention, with a special working group, which could pave the way for South Korea’s full membership and boost the pangovernmental rail industry, the agency’s chief said Wednesday.

Despite Pyongyang’s unfaltering opposition to Seoul’s joining, Tadeusz Szozda gave an upbeat outlook as the Warsaw-headquartered body seeks to scrap the longstanding consensus-based decision-making procedure in favor of one that will allow a new member with a three-quarter majority.

The 16-member working group is expected to draw up an outline of the accord later this year and send it to 28 member countries for domestic approval. The ratifications would then be submitted to the U.N. to go into effect.

“If the new convention is introduced and adopted, it will facilitate the joining of new member countries including South Korea,” the chairman of the OSJD Committee said in an interview with some visiting reporters at its office in Warsaw. 

“Consensus is not required in order for the new convention to be ratified, but we do need endorsement by many countries. It is to be seen how long the process will take but hopefully not long.”

The interview took place on the sidelines of a seminar jointly organized in Warsaw by the OSJD, South Korea’s Transport Ministry and its railroad agency, KORAIL. The event is one of the key features of the “Eurasia Express” that embarked July 14 on a 20-day journey through Berlin via China, Mongolia, Russia and Poland with some 250 passengers from home and overseas.

North Korea, too, will benefit greatly from South Korea’s participation, Szozda said, citing “massive transit fees” it will collect when the Trans Korea Railway and Trans-Siberian Railroad are connected.

If Busan and Rotterdam are linked, cargo could be delivered in 17-18 days, nearly half of what it takes through a traditional maritime voyage, he noted. The Dutch city currently transports some 90 percent of its freight by sea.

“Almost all regular member countries and I, as the OSJD chairman, are truly wanting South Korea to sign up,” he said. “We support its enlisting for the coprosperity and development of all member countries regardless of any political interests.”

In March 2014, KORAIL became an affiliate member of the organization. Seoul’s membership was on the agenda during the OSJD’s ministerial conference, its top governing body, in Ulaanbaatar last May, but did not come through due to Pyongyang’s resistance.

Yet the measure may trigger backlash, some officials and experts say, from not only Pyongyang, but other countries for ditching the unanimous system that has been in place since its founding in 1956.

The participation of Azerbaijan, which for its part opposes Armenia’s membership, is another factor.

“They’re taking a detour because to amend the existing pact also requires consensus. I’m concerned that the move could rile North Korea and lead it to drop from the organization. What’s the point of us joining if the North exits?” a Transport Ministry official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

A railroad analyst who took part in the seminar said, “It is matter of the organization’s integrity as it has been operating the consensus system for the last 60 years. Given the varying weights of the rail industry in each member country’s economy, their national interests and diplomatic ties with the North, it may come back as a burden to South Korea even after it secures full membership.”

By Shin Hyon-hee, Korea Herald correspondent



(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)