A barbed wire fence guards the Freedom Bridge, connecting South Korea to the Demilitarized Zone and North Korea as a train crosses it from Seoul. Inside North Korea, trains have been using internal combustion engines to combat the problem of electric power shortage inside the isolated country. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

SEOUL, April 6 (UPI) -- In a bid to find a solution to its power shortage, North Korea's state railway service has been adding units with internal combustion engines to transportation lines.

The internal combustion engines being deployed originally were reserved for wartime or emergency use, reported South Korea's Kyunghyang Sinmun, but according to Radio Free Asia the engines are being used on railways that connect Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, to the Tumen River station near the Chinese border.


On Tuesday, an unnamed source in Pyongyang confirmed the trains have been running since February, and have reduced travel time between Pyongyang and the border area to two days – from 10 to 20 days.

The cost of the ticket is about 45,000 North Korean won.

Similar changes have taken place for trains running from the North Korean border city of Sinuiju to Huichon in the northern province of Chagang.

Rail transport that runs from the North Korean city of Kaesong to Pyongyang, however, is not utilizing internal combustion engines to the same degree as other lines in North Korea's network of trains.

Radio Free Asia's source said roads that run between Pyongyang and Kaesong are in better condition than those in other parts of the country, and train travel is less prevalent in the area. But the source added the addition of internal combustion engines to North Korean trains is unprecedented in number.

Yonhap reported internal combustion engines do not use electric power, which is in short supply in North Korea. Instead, it relies on coal and wood, burned inside furnaces to produce power.

A drought has crippled the operation of North Korea's hydroelectric power generators, and high-quality coal is usually exported to earn foreign currency for North Korea's impoverished economy.

Thermoelectric power plants are also facing serious challenges, Yonhap reported.

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