South Korea is considering initiating the establishment of an inter-governmental organization that decides compulsive road standards and guidelines, the transport ministry here said Wednesday.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it has outsourced a research project about mapping out strategies to set up and host an international road organization, saying that the world community has reached a consensus about South Korea's role.

There are some international treaties on road traffic controls including the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals and the United Nations Convention on Road Traffic, but have little legal binding force for member countries.

The World Road Association and the International Road Federation are non-governmental organizations that only carry out joint research projects among members.

The ministry said the road transport area is in need of the control tower to draw up standards and criteria in road traffic regulations and signs, as other fields do under the flags of the International Civil Aviation Organization, International Maritime Organization and the Organization for Cooperation between Railways.

Cross-border road traffic and mobility has been increasing in recent decades, while Asia and Europe are joining hands to build a

140,000 kilometer-long Great Asian Highway, which links some 32 Asian countries from Japan and South Korea to Turkey.

The new international agency will play a leading role in building the massive inter-continental project and improving the road traffic regulations and global cooperation.

The ministry said South Korea is ready to lead the new organization, given its experience in the field as it hosted the 25th World Road Congress in November last year.

"We're now checking the feasibility of establishing and hosting the new international road organization," said a ministry official. (Yonhap)