President Yoon Suk Yeol has vowed to double the operation of high-speed trains.

The president made the pledge in a speech at a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of an additional high-speed rail line connecting Pyeongtaek and Osong held in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province on Wednesday.

Yoon said the completion of the project will bring high-speed rail travel to many parts of the country such as Incheon, Suwon and Geoje, with the availability of two-hour trips expanded nationwide.

He also vowed to accelerate efforts to domestically develop a world-class, next-generation, high-speed train that can travel 400 kilometers per hour.

The Pyeongtaek-Osong project will feature the country's first train to run at such a speed, some 100 kilometers per hour faster than the current trains.