Historic rail run means trainspotting, Korean style

By Jack Kim

CHEJIN, South Korea (Reuters) - A North Korean train chugged into the South on Thursday for the first time in decades with a great paint job, lousy brakes and a lot of portraits of Pyongyang's leaders.

"This thing is older than me," said Kim Kyu-jin, 39, a mechanic with South Korea's Korail of the ancient North Korean passenger train parked in a gleaming new station south of the border.

The two Koreas sent trains across the border for the first time since their 1950-1953 war, and the arrival of the olive-green locomotive and five passenger carriages from the impoverished North drew numerous onlookers -- especially among workers of the South's railway.

"That's really rough," Kim said, adding the brakes on the train pulled by diesel locomotive Ne Yon 602 had a backup mechanism that is no longer in use on South Korea's modern rolling stock.

Inside, the train was pristine, with portraits of the North's "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il hanging between cars. The 150 passengers aboard had munched on fresh fruit for their 25 km (15 mile) trip across the border.

The exterior of the train was spotless and displayed signs of great care given ahead of the historic train run, the mechanics said.

"This is one heck of a paint job," said Nam Ki-ho, 42, as he ran his hand along the smooth body of one of the passenger cars pulled by a locomotive with a banner noting the North's eternal President Kim Il-sung had personally boarded the train in 1968.

During their short stop in the South, the train's young female cabin crew members started marching into the station dressed in their crisp military uniforms -- trailed by a pack of men that seemingly swelled with every step they took.

"Oh, they're going to use the bathroom," one of the male admirers said, as the pack stopped short of the ladies' room.