The first 41.4 km (25.7 mi) section of the line (Mukho Port–Dogye) was opened by the privately owned Samcheok Railway on 31 July 1940.

[6] Permission to build the line was given to the privately owned Chosen Railway on 16 October 1944,[7] and work began that year with local forced labourers.

[6] Although the first section from Yeongju to Naeseong (today Bonghwa) was almost complete by August 1945, that month World War II ended, a Korean provisional government formed, and a flood damaged the tracks, leading to the abandonment of the line.

[10] To solve these problems, Korail built a 19.6 km (12.2 mi) new alignment between the two stations with a budget of 510.322 billion won.

[14] At the time of thawing relations between South and North Korea, when the cross-border section of the Donghae Bukbu Line was reopened in 2007, the South Korean government considered the construction of a railway for freight traffic all along the east coast to the North Korean border.

On September 1, 2010, the South Korean government announced a strategic plan to reduce travel times from Seoul to 95% of the country to under 2 hours by 2020.

In the timetable valid from December 15, 2010, six pairs of daily trains run between Cheongnyangni station in Seoul and Gangneung, reinforced by a seventh pair on Fridays to Sundays, with Cheongnyangni–Gangneung travel times between 5 hours 47 minutes and 6 hours 25 minutes, depending on the number of stops.

[18] In 1998, Korean National Railroad (today Korail) introduced special tourist trains operating in the winter months, identified by a snowflake decoration, which enjoyed great popularity.

[20] According to Korail's plans in 2009, travel times on the Yeongdong Line are to be reduced after 2013 with the future series version of the Tilting Train Express.