building a canal across Korea?

This doesn't seem like a very good idea to me. Knowing how small Korea really is, I don't think it would really save all that much time in terms of transport. It would just be a very time consuming and expensive project that will destroy much of Korea's countryside, most of which is mountains.
Canal plan divides Korea
By John Sudworth BBC News, Seoul
"South Korea's incoming President Lee Myung-bak intends to build a canal stretching the length of the country - he believes it will be an engineering marvel, others say it is lunacy."