From the Korea Times:
South Korea’s chief delegate for the inter-Korean economic talks yesterday reaffirmed the North will not be getting any new economic support unless it pushes ahead with the railways test-run.
In a radio interview, Vice Finance Minister Bahk Byong-won said, “We created a structure in which the additional economic cooperation is only possible after the railways test-run.”
The two Koreas closed their 12th Economic Cooperation and Promotion Committee meeting in Jeju on Tuesday with a nine-article agreement on support for light industries, natural resources development and others.
The two sides concurred such agreements will only be implemented when “conditions are met,” which they verbally confirmed referred to the cancelled cross-border test-runs.
North Korea abruptly cancelled the scheduled testing last month, prompting an angry response from the South.
The South, remaining steadfast to its policy of engaging more economically with its communist neighbor, believes staunch military authorities to be behind the cancellation.
“(The North’s) military authorities are closely connected with the procedures of implementing many of the inter-Korean agreements. And the (preconditioning) clause refers to just that,” Bahk said, emphasizing that the North Korean military must take visible measures such as preparing a military guarantee for the railways operation.
The two railways, on the east and west of the Korean Peninsula, run through heavily fortified borders. It would be the first time in over five decades that the trains run.
“Although we said ‘conditions’ in the agreement, both sides made clear when we read out the agreement that the conditions referred to the railways test to avoid any conflicting interpretations in the future,” Bahk said.
By Lee Joo-hee
