Construction began on the railway line from Baranovsky railway station to a point 190 km away in the direction opposite of Kraskino, and was completed in 1941. After World War II, the Baranovski-Kraskino line was continued to the border with North Korea, resulting in a total length of . The end of the line was the Khasan station, located near Lake Khasan. The Khasan station opened for operation on September 28, 1951. It has long remained a dead-end: across the Tumen River, which forms the state border, a temporary wooden bridge was built, which carried its first working train into Korea in 1952. Exchange of goods between the Soviet Union and North Korea by rail through the Khasan station began in 1954. Sixty-five cars or 1,300 tons of cargo were exported from North Korea, with 153 cars or 3,123 tons of cargo being imported. In 1955, 530 cars or 7,200 tons were exported from North Korea, while 295 cars or 4,800 tons of cargo were imported. Two years later, Khasan station exports had grown an incredible fourteen-fold and imports sixteen-fold. The temporary wooden bridge was inadequate for the increasing traffic, so in 1959 a joint decision was made to build a bridge with metal spans on stone abutments, called the "Friendship Bridge". It was commissioned on August 9, 1959. There is a break in gauge between the two railroads since the Russian railroad system is and the North Korean railroad system is .