The Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology(UNIST) is working to develop the core technology to build a high-speed train that can travel from Seoul to Busan in 16 minutes.
 
Introduced by business magnate Elon Musk in August 2013, the concept of the high-speed train called Hyperloop is to transport passengers and goods in capsule-like carriages through a vacuum tube.
 
With air resistance minimized inside the tube, trains can run at a speed of one-thousand-200 kilometers an hour, four times faster than South Korea’s current KTX high-speed train.
 
The state-invested institute aims to develop the train propulsion technology and a system that reduces the air resistance in the tube, the key element of the Hyperloop concept.
 
The method of magnetic levitation will be employed to keep trains afloat above the railway while traveling.
 
The five-year project will require a budget of one-point-four billion won. The institute plans to set research directions and concepts in the first year, draw up detailed designs in the second and third years, conduct tests in the fourth year and complete the development in the fifth year.