Japan lawmakers want "peace tunnel" to South Korea

15/02/2008 - 8:57

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan and South Korea, long at odds over their wartime history, should be linked by a railway tunnel under the sea symbolising peaceful ties, a group of Japanese lawmakers was reported as saying on Friday.

The cross-party group of parliamentarians is proposing a128 km (80 miles) tunnel that would be part of a rail linkbetween Karatsu on Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu andPusan in South Korea via two Japanese islands, Kyodo newsagency said.

The tunnel -- which would be more than twice as long as theChannel Tunnel connecting Britain and France -- could one dayallow passengers to travel by rail from Tokyo to London, Kyodoquoted lawmakers as saying.

"This is a dream-inspiring project," Kyodo quoted formerdefence chief Seishiro Eto as telling reporters after a meetingwith other interested lawmakers from various parties. "We'dlike to promote it as a symbol of peace-building."

The lawmakers' group first plans to try to persuade Tokyoand Seoul to fund a feasibility study, Kyodo said.

Eto was not immediately available to comment on the report.

Relations between Tokyo and Seoul have improved sinceformer Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stepped downin 2006. Koizumi irritated Asian nations with annual visits toa war shrine that critics see as a symbol of Japan's pastmilitarism.

Conservative South Korean President-elect Lee Myung-bak wasborn in Japan and is seen as Tokyo-friendly. Japanese PrimeMinister Yasuo Fukuda plans to attend his inauguration in Seoullater this month.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Eric Burroughs)