FIREWORKS crackled and balloons soared as the two Koreas simultaneously started work yesterday on rail and road links across their heavily fortified border, hoping the project would help bring peace to their divided peninsula.

　　The project adds to rising hopes that a durable peace may finally take root on the Cold War’s last frontier, following North Korea’s recent steps toward emerging from its long isolation.

　　A day earlier, Japan decided to restart talks on establishing diplomatic relations with the North after its prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, made an unprecedented one-day trip to Pyongyang for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

　　The link project involves two sets of cross-border railways and roads. The two sides’ prime ministers and other top government officials attended separate celebrations to mark the project on each side of the border.

　　Two transportation corridors are to be built through the four-kilometer buffer zone between the countries.

　If plans go smoothly, a cross-border road on the eastern sector will be re-linked as early as November, and a railway on the western sector by year’s end.

　　China congratulated the Koreas yesterday on the launch of the project. The project marks a “substantive step toward the reconciliation between” North Korea and South Korea, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said.

　　Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to both South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the North Korean leader, congratulating the “wise decision” made by the two Korean states, the Kremlin press service said.

　　(SD-Agencies)