The Korean government is considering building underwater tunnels with China and Japan, as a key component of an envisioned integrated East Asian transportation network.

The Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs said Tuesday it commissioned the state-sponsored Korea Transport Institute last year to review the technical and economical feasibility of the projects. The results will be available by the end of the year, it added.

“We have decided to just assess the validities of the Korea-Japan and Korea-China underwater tunnels regardless of potential political or budgetary issues. There has been an active discussion in the private sector regarding them,” a land ministry official said. 

The three undersea tunnels for high-speed trains and automobiles currently being considered are the Mokpo-Jeju (167 kilometers) section; Incheon-Weihai (341 kilometers) section and Busan-Fukuoka (222.6 kilometers) section. If realized it would only take 2 hours and 47 minutes to get to Jeju Island from Seoul.

Such projects were mentioned in the ministry’s recently presented plan to expand the country’s bullet train network by 2020, due to the increasing importance of “mega regions” in the global economy.

However, the ministry noted that the underwater tunnel projects should take at least tens of years to launch because the country needs to reach agreement with neighboring nations.

The astronomical cost for the projects and some Koreans’ negative sentiments toward them are considered to be two other major obstacles to construction.

Each tunnel is likely to cost up to 100 trillion won ($86 billion), according to the land ministry, which would have to be shared by two concerned countries.

Also, some Koreans have expressed concern particularly for the Korea-Japan underwater tunnel, as it would open up another opportunity for the island country to advance to the continent.

“All three underwater tunnels are needed to handle future demands but they should be carried out as mid- to long-term projects, having 15-20 year-intervals between each,” KOTI president Hwang Kee-yeon told a local daily.

“It is appropriate for the Jeju tunnel to be launched in late 2010s, and for the Korea-China and Korea-Japan tunnels to be launched in the 2030s and 2050s, respectively.”

By Koh Young-aah (youngaah@heraldcorp.com)