Seoul
\nThe two Koreas on Wednesday launched a project to reconnect rail and road links severed since the 1950-53 Korean War, but actual construction cannot start while sanctions remain in place against North Korea, officials said.<\/p>\n
The two sides agreed in October to work on reconnecting railways and roads as part of a thaw in relations that the United States fears will undermine efforts to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things to do before we actually start construction,\u201d South Korean Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mee said before the ceremony in the city of Kaesong on the North Korean side of the border.<\/p>\n
The materials and investment needed for construction to begin are banned under UN and US sanctions imposed over Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear and missile programmes. Washington insists sanctions remain until the North gives up its nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
Shin Jang-chul, who drove the last freight train between the Koreas when they operated a joint factory park a decade ago, said he never thought he would return to the North.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just deeply moved,\u201d Shin said. \u201cIt\u2019s been 10 years and I\u2019ve been wondering if I would ever be able to come back after I retire.\u201dThey were joined by a North Korean delegation, as well as officials from the United Nations, China, Russia and Mongolia, according to South Korea\u2019s Unification Ministry.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the event, the North\u2019s Vice Railroad Minister Kim Yun Hyok called for an \u201cunwavering determination to stand against headwinds\u201d that could threaten the project.<\/p>\n
The two sides will conduct additional joint surveys and design work that could take one or two years to complete, the South\u2019s Kim Hyun-mee said.Wednesday\u2019s ceremony was another example of the thaw in relations between the Koreas, technically still at war after their conflict ended in a truce not a peace treaty.<\/p>\n
But major economic initiatives have yet to take off amid the lack of progress on denuclearising the North.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to work toward denuclearisation at a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in June. But negotiations have made little headway, with Pyongyang upset at Washington\u2019s insistence that sanctions remain until the North takes concrete steps to give up its nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seoul The two Koreas on Wednesday launched a project to reconnect rail and road links severed since the 1950-53 Korean War, but actual construction cannot start while sanctions remain in place against North Korea, officials said. The two sides agreed in October to work on reconnecting railways and roads as part of a thaw in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51077,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51075\/revisions\/51077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}