Undersea tunnel to link Korea and Japan

Tokyo : South Korea is drawing up plans to dig undersea tunnels connecting the peninsula to Japan and China.

President Lee Myung Bak has ordered an economic and technical feasibility study into the prospect of creating the links, which would stretch hundreds of miles. The proposals would join South Korea with Kyushu, southern Japan, and a second route with China's Shandong Province.

It marks the culmination of discussion and speculation dating back almost 100 years. The tunnel from Korea to Kyushu would stretch 80 miles under the sea and connect the island nation of Japan directly to mainland Asia, transforming trade routes, commerce and tourism.

The project, which would cost an estimated £51.2 billion, aims to improve a transport network between the nations. The second route would link Weihai in Shandong Province to South Korea's Pyeongtaek port, in the form of a vast underwater tunnel stretching 230 miles. Huh Moon-Doy, the head of a joint tunnel committee, said the union would create a strong alliance between the countries.

— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2009