SEOUL - A TRAIN once seen as a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation made its last trip northwards across the border on Friday before North Korea shuts the service amid worsening ties with the South.

'My heart is bleeding as the cross-border railway service is being cut off again like this,' said Mr Shin Jang Chul before he drove the train towards the heavily fortified frontier.

'But I think this situation is only transitory,' said Mr Shin, who also drove the train when the inter-Korean railway service resumed in May last year for the first time in 56 years.

Regular services began last December, on a 7.3 km section of track.

The cargo train operates one trip in each direction from Mondays to Fridays. It has often been run almost empty because of a lack of demand but South Korea has kept it going because of its symbolic value.

The North has said it will impose strict curbs on cross-border traffic from December 1 because of what it calls Seoul's confrontational policy, suspending the rail service and scrapping a popular day tour to the western city of Kaesong.

It says other frontier crossings will be severely restricted, and South Koreans working at two joint projects - the Mount Kumgang east coast resort and the Kaesong industrial estate near the city of the same name - will be 'selectively' expelled.

The last train pulled out of Dorasan station, the final stop in the South, at 9 am. It is scheduled to return five hours later and the service will then close, railway authorities said.

The last group of 210 South Korean tourists left Friday on the day trip to Kaesong, the tour operator Hyundai Asan said.

More than 100,000 people have joined the tours to the historic city since they began a year ago. -- AFP