Neighbors to start railway, road connection
High-level talks between Seoul and Pyongyang on Monday have been seen as a positive move toward implementing the Pyongyang Declaration, and which a Chinese expert said will help establish peace and rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula.
According to a joint agreement reached after Monday’s talks, the two neighbors agreed to hold a groundbreaking ceremony in late November or early December to modernize and eventually connect railways and roads across the inter-Korean border.
The Republic of Korea’s Unification Ministry said that the two sides also agreed to soon hold generallevel military talks to discuss reducing border tensions and setting up a joint military committee to maintain communication and avoid crises and accidental clashes.
Talks between sports officials were expected to be held in late October, in order to discuss plans to send combined teams to the 2020 Summer Olympics and make a push to co-host the 2032 Summer Games. Videoconference meetings between aging relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War is also planned to be held in November, Yonhap news agency reported.
The talks took place in the border village of Panmunjom and were led by the ROK’s Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon and Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Ri told reporters the objective of the meeting was not just to find ways to move the summit agreement forward but also to secure a major chance to bring peace, prosperity and eventually reunification to the Korean Peninsula.
The ROK President Moon Jae-in and the DPRK top leader Kim Jong-un signed the Pyongyang Declaration after holding their third summit in September. The two leaders agreed to resume economic cooperation, including reconnecting railways and roads. Kim also said Pyongyang would permanently abolish key missile facilities in the presence of foreign experts.
The meeting came amid US media speculation that Washington is concerned the warming of ties between the neighbors may be outpacing negotiations to dismantle the DPRK’s nuclear and missile programs.
Wang Sheng, a researcher of Korean Peninsula Studies at Jilin University, said Seoul and Pyongyang are the main stakeholders on the peninsula and their positive interaction is conducive to regional peace and stability.
Seoul and Pyongyang need peace on the peninsula much more than Washington, but Washington’s policy toward the peninsula is based on its own interests, not theirs, Wang said, urging the US to be supportive of the two neighbors’ efforts.