 Following the 1961 coup, the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction started South Korea's first five-year plan, which included a construction program to complete the railway network, to foster economic growth.One of the first lines completed under the plan was the Hwangji Branchline, which would later become the eastern end of the Taebaek Line.The long spur from Baeksan on the Cheoram Line (today the Yeongdong Line) to Hwangji (renamed Taebaek in 1984) opened on December 20, 1962.