Bibliographic Information
Shin, Ye-Kyeong. “Post-War Korea’s Energy Transition and the Formation of the Railway Network: Focusing on the Transition from Wood Fuel to Coal.”
Journal of the Korean Society for Railway, 29(2), pp. 194–207, February 2026.
ISSN 1738-6225 / eISSN 2288-2235
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7782/JKSR.2026.29.2.194
Research Summary
This study examines how South Korean government policies to secure energy sources, including electricity and coal, influenced the railway network and the country’s territorial and urban structure during the period of full-scale economic development beginning in the 1960s. The industrialization policies of the time aimed not only to increase income and accelerate economic growth, but also to respond strategically to the nation’s available resources and environmental conditions.
From the 1960s to the early 1970s, the government strongly promoted a transition from wood fuel to anthracite coal. This policy stimulated development in coal-mining regions and led to the construction of new railway lines. As a result, new east–west railway connections across the Korean Peninsula were added to the existing north–south network originally developed to connect Japan, Korea, and China. These changes subsequently had a close influence on the economic and geographical development of southern Korea.