Two trains from North and South Korea crossed the heavily armed border on Thursday, restoring for the first time an artery severed in the 1950-1953 fratricidal war and fanning dreams of unification. 

It took the two Koreas 56 years to send the trains -- one starting in the South and one in the North -- across the Cold War's last frontier for the runs of about 25 km.

The trains carried 100 South Koreans and 50 North Koreans -- including celebrities, politicians and a South Korean conductor from one of the last trains to cross before the rail link was cut in 1951. 

"Today the heart of the Korean peninsula will start beating again," South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said before the crossing. "The trains represent the dreams, the hopes and the future of the two Koreas." 

The train from the South was seen off to fireworks, traditional drumming and hundreds of people waving flags showing a unified Korean peninsula in blue on a white background. 

"I wish I could operate this train myself," said Han Chun-ki, 80, the conductor who made one of the last cross-border runs more than a half century ago. "I never thought this day would come." 

North Korea's military, fearful of increased openings between the isolated country and the outside world, cancelled a planned run a year ago. It agreed last week to a one-off run, despite pressure from Seoul for more crossings. 

The South Korean government has been criticised at home for sending massive aid to the North only to see Pyongyang respond to its largesse by halting cooperation projects and sparking a security crisis with a nuclear test last year. 

South Korea, mindful of the hundreds of billions of dollars it would cost to unify with its impoverished neighbour, has sought a series of projects to gradually bring the two together. 

The two Koreas, still technically still at war because their conflict ended only in a truce, have lived with a razor wire and land-mine strewn border dividing the peninsula for decades and while over a million troops are stationed near the countries' demilitarised buffer zone. 

To entice the North to allow the crossing, South Korea has offered some $80 million in aid for its light industries. 

Eventually, South Korea, which only shares a border with the North, said it wants to send passengers and cargo via its neighbour into China and Russia and link with the Trans-Siberian railway. Export-dependent South Korea could see huge savings in moving cargo if North Korea allows the rail link. 

Copyright © 2007 Reuters