Seoul yesterday said that the UN Security Council granted an exemption to sanctions that would allow surveys on North Korean railroad sections that the two sides want to connect with the South.
The surveys would require South Korea to transport fuel and a variety of goods to North Korea, including possibly rail cars to test on tracks.
The Koreas plan to hold a groundbreaking ceremony by the end of the year on a project to connect their railways and roads as agreed by their leaders.
However, beyond surveys and tape-cuttings, they cannot move much further without the lifting of sanctions against North Korea, which is not likely before Pyongyang takes more conclusive steps toward relinquishing its nuclear weapons and missiles.
The plan to modernize North Korea’s outdated railways and roads and reconnect them with the South was among many agreements reached between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who met three times this year amid a diplomatic push that eased tensions over the North’s nuclear program.
Kim also met with US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June, when they issued a statement about a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.
North Korea insists that sanctions should be removed before any progress could be made in nuclear negotiations.
There is also unease between the US and South Korea over the pace of inter-Korean engagement, which Washington says should move in tandem with efforts to denuclearize the North.
South Korea initially said that the joint surveys of North Korean railroads would not violate UN sanctions and had hoped to start them last month.
Seoul later said that Washington had different views and the two sides had discussed the matter in a newly launched working group.
Even if the North takes concrete steps toward denuclearization and gains sanctions relief, experts say updating North Korean rail networks and trains, which creak slowly along the rails that were first built in the early 20th century, would require a massive effort that could take decades and tens of billions of dollars.
UN sanctions against North Korea have been bolstered significantly since 2016 as Pyongyang stepped up its weapons tests. The measures now include trade bans on “dual-use” technology that could potentially be used for weapons development, transport vehicles and machinery, and import caps on fuel.
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