President Park Geun-hye called Wednesday for a new era for railways that can freely carry passengers and freight anywhere in the world.

She made the comment in a video message to a meeting of the Organization for Cooperation between Railways (OSJD) underway in Seoul.

Participants of the meeting said in a declaration that they took into account "the mutual interest in container transportation in international traffic between Europe and Asia as well as in the connection with the Korean Peninsula on the transcontinental routes of the OSJD international transport corridors, including the Trans-Siberian railway."

Choi Yeon-hye, president and CEO of the Korea Railroad Corp., called for support from participating countries in the meeting for the re-connection of inter-Korean railways for co-prosperity.

South Korea has long talked about linking its rail network to Russia's Trans-Siberian Railway via North Korea, an ambitious project that will cut shipping times and logistics costs for South Korea's Europe-bound exports.

Discussions on the project to connect the Trans-Siberian Railway with the potential Trans-Korean Railway have been underway for more than a decade, although no major progress has been made due to geopolitical obstacles, particularly North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. (Yonhap)