This study was announced at an international seminar on the tunnel in Seoul organized by the Gyeonggi Research Institute (GRI) under the sponsorship of China’s Shandong Academy of Social Sciences.
GRI vice president Cho Eung-rae said if the tunnel is built (which is so unlikely it might rightly be filed under fantasy) express trains would shorten travel from Seoul to Shanghai to five hours and 31 minutes and to Beijing to four hours and 26 minutes. He suggests that this could result in creating a huge economic sphere linking about 24 million people in the Seoul area with some 272.1 million in the Beijing and Shanghai regions.
Similar projections were made for the tunnel connecting Britain and France. The expectations were never reached and the project has consistently lost money. But the unloved Chunnel from England to France is only about 30 miles long. The distance this projected tunnel would have to travel would be 200 miles, all underwater.
ROKDrop states it actually appears more feasible to work something out with the North Koreans to get a highway built to connect South Korea to China than anyone pouring money into this tunnel idea. Damn right.