[On Site, This Person] Explorer Kim Hyunguk: "Peace Through Reconnecting Divided Roads"

Crossing the Eurasian Continent for 30 Years Since 1996

Overland Eurasian Route Essential After Korean Unification

From Reliance on Air and Sea Networks to Opening Overland Links

Highlighting a Road Connecting South and North Through the 7th Transcontinental Expedition

"Connecting Roads Is National Competitiveness and the Starting Point of Peace"

Kim Hyunguk, Chairman of the World Exploration Culture Research Institute and explorer.

"The beginning of peace is the road. The roads of the divided South and North Korea must be reconnected."

Kim Hyunguk, chairman of the World Exploration and Culture Research Institute and an explorer, is preparing for his seventh Eurasian crossing expedition with the conviction that "the road itself is peace," in order to reconnect the divided roads of South and North Korea.

This Eurasian crossing will take place from December this year until November next year under the theme, "Roads Are Peace! From New York to Paris, and on to the Korean Peninsula DMZ and the Northern Sea Route." Based on the slogan, "The roads of South and North Korea, the world's only divided nation, must be reconnected," he plans to bring this message to the forefront of public debate in New York, the center of international politics, as well as in Tokyo, Seoul, Moscow, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, and Paris.

Kim has already crossed the Eurasian continent six times. He first set foot on Russian soil in 1996, when he traversed the whole of Siberia by motorcycle.

For about 30 years, he has persistently collected data on a "Trans-Eurasian Overland Route" connecting Busan, Siberia, and Europe. Kim is convinced that once the Korean Peninsula is unified and the era of a single people being divided comes to an end, this overland route from the Korean Peninsula to Europe will become necessary. He also notes that 90% of this overland route passes through Russian territory.

Kim explained, "Since 1996, I have crossed Eurasia six times. The first journey was a solo trip across Siberia on a motorcycle, and along that road, traces of the Cold War still remained," adding, "The purpose of this expedition is not about records or distance competitions. It is to show that even divided roads can be reconnected."

He continued, "It is no coincidence that we chose New York as the starting point. New York is the city of the UN and a symbol of global politics, and it was also the starting point of the legendary 1908 New York–Paris automobile race," and added, "At a time when the importance of the Arctic route and the Far East is growing, the Korean Peninsula can become not a fault line but a starting point for peace. As a member of The Explorers Club in New York, I am raising in the divided spaces on Earth the same questions that space explorers ask."

The 7th Transcontinental Travel Route

Before preparing for this project, Kim recently visited Moscow. This is because plans related to the Arctic Ocean route, Siberian crossing infrastructure, Far East development strategies, and future Russia–North Korea connectivity are all moving with Russia at the center.

In particular, while in Moscow, he conducted interviews with Russian media and prepared a video letter and written letter to be sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He compiled and delivered his records from 30 years of transcontinental crossings, international exhibitions and lectures, youth programs, and road database-building activities.

Kim defines the division of the Korean Peninsula not as a security issue but as the rigidification of a spatial structure. He points out that although South Korea has an economy ranked around 10th in the world, its land-based network is cut off, forcing it to rely solely on maritime and air routes. For this reason, over the past 30 years, he has personally traveled more than 14,000 km of road networks from Busan to Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Moscow, and Amsterdam to verify that they are "functioning economic corridors."

Kim stressed, "When Russia's R297 'Amur' federal highway was completed in 2010, a 10,000 km overland axis between Moscow and Vladivostok was finally established," adding, "This was not just the opening of a road; it meant that Asia and Europe had been connected into a single overland logistics system."

He went on, "Eurasia is already a single economic space. However, South Korea is the only industrialized nation that cannot directly access that system," and emphasized, "We are accessing the continental market only indirectly, via sea and air. Inevitably, this becomes a structural constraint on national competitiveness over the long term."

He added, "The seventh Eurasian transcontinental project now in preparation will start in New York, the center of global finance, cross the North American continent, and then return to Tokyo and Seoul. It will then travel from Russia through Eastern and Western Europe to Paris, and proceed via the Arctic Ocean route and other paths to cross the Korean Peninsula DMZ," and said, "This project is not merely about setting a travel record; it is an experiment that simultaneously addresses two incomplete networks: the division structure and the Arctic route."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.