Construction and Transportation Minister Lee Yong-sup says the government will actively seek connecting the nation to a transcontinental railway system after the two Koreas open the cross-border Gyeongui and Donghae lines.

Lee said that Thursday's test runs of the inter-Korean railways would provide the technical basis for normalizing cross-border railway operations. He went on to say that the government will try to connect the inter-Korean railway with the Trans-Siberian Railway.

He said that if Pyongyang agrees, service can begin on the two lines by the end of this year, transporting supplies to the Gaesong Industrial Complex via the Gyeongui line and tourists to the Geumgang mountain resort via the Donghae line.

To those ends, the government will propose to the North that the two sides establish a committee on joint railway operations and hold trilateral talks with Russia on operating a transcontinental railway.