Yonhap
Kim Hyun
3/15/2007
South and North Korea on Thursday failed to agree on when to conduct their first run of cross-border railways in nearly 60 years over disputes on industrial aid to the North, the Unification Ministry said.
The two Koreas agreed, however, to resume family reunions in May, said the South’s Red Cross after separate negotiation.
Their two-day meeting in the North Korean border city of Kaesong ended without an agreement on the test run of two railways along the east and west coasts, said ministry spokesman Yang Chang-seok.
The talks were expected to hinge on how to guarantee the military security for the trains crossing the border, but the spokesman said disputes occurred on how arrange industrial aid to the North.
“There were differences on when to start the joint cooperation project with the light industry and natural underground resources, but they agreed to continue their dialogue in the near future,” Yang said.
South Korea has connected the test run to tens of millions of dollars’ worth of aid to North Korean light industries, such as clothing, shoes and soap manufacturing. In the talks in Kaesong, Seoul sought to focus on setting the date for the trial run and discussing the aid afterwards, while Pyongyang wanted to simultaneously handle the two issues, officials said.
As part of the watershed inter-Korean summit in 2000, the South laid tracks for two railways in 2005–one on the east coast and another on the west coast–which were severed during the 1950-1953 Korean War. The last train to cross the border ran in 1951 during the war, carrying refugees and soldiers.
The rail crossing planned for May of last year was scrapped at the last minute, as the North demanded a maritime border off the west coast to be redrawn as a precondition.
The North does not recognize the western sea border that was drawn by the United Nations and the United States and other allies at the end of the war.
The railway talks resumed after a ministerial-level agreement on March 2 that cleared the way for many inter-Korean projects, including the reunion of families separated from the war.
Through a separate dialogue channel, the two Koreas agreed on Thursday to hold family reunions on May 9-14, said the South Korean Red Cross in a press release. The reunions, the 15th of their kind, will take place at the North’s Mount Geumgang resort, the customary venue used for South Korean tourists, it said. The agreement followed dialogue with the Red Cross’s North Korean counterpart via telephone and in the truce village of Panmunjom.
Red Cross officials will exchange details on the whereabouts of families separated by the border in early April, and will reveal the final list of participants on April 27, it said. One hundred people each from the South and the North will participate, it said.
Koreas discusses railway test runs
Yonhap
3/14/2007
South and North Korea discussed a safety guarantee for proposed test runs of the reconnected cross-border railway on the first day of the two-day working-level talks Wednesday, the Unification Ministry said.
Earlier this month, Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to meet in the North Korean border city of Kaesong to discuss steps necessary to guarantee the safety of test runs of the railroad.
“Contacts ended around 3:30 p.m. Now that the basic stances (of the two sides) have been exchanged, full-dressed discussions are expected tomorrow (Thursday),” a ministry official here said.
“During the contact, we focused on the test runs, but the North also raised issues about an agreement from last year on inter-Korean joint projects involving light industry and natural resources, in addition to the test-run issues,” said the official, asking to remain anonymous.
At the 12th meeting of the inter-Korean economic talks in June, the two sides agreed that if the test runs materialize, the South will provide the North with US$80 million worth of raw materials to make footwear, garments and soap, in exchange for natural resources from the North.
In May, North Korea abruptly called off scheduled test runs of the cross-border railways under apparent pressure from its hard-line military. North Korea’s subsequent missile and nuclear weapons tests further clouded hopes of implementing the accord.
The tracks, one line cutting across the western section of the border and another crossing the eastern side, have been completed and were set to undergo test runs. A set of parallel roads have been in use since 2005 for South Koreans traveling to the North.
Ko Kung-bin, chief of the South-North Korea economic cooperation bureau, leads the two-member South Korean delegation to the talks, while Pang Kang-su, chief of the North’s national economic cooperation committee, is to head his country’s four-member delegation, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, South Korea’s point man on North Korea, was optimistic that the two sides will agree on a guarantee for the safe operation of the trains.
“During the ministerial talks, North Korea first proposed working-level dialogue, so we think that the North has the will (for a safety guarantee),” Lee said in a meeting with reporters on Tuesday.
Koreas to Resume Talks on Rail Test Runs
Korea Times
Lee Jin-woo
3/13/2007
Working-level officials from the two Koreas will meet today in the North Korean border city of Kaesong to discuss ways to carry out the long-delayed test run of cross-border trains.
Goh Gyeong-bin, a senior official of the Ministry of Unification, will lead the five-member South Korean delegation while the North’s delegation will be headed by Pang Kang-su, chief of the national economic cooperation committee.
The two-day meeting will be held ahead of vice minister-level economic cooperation talks slated for April 18 to 21 in Pyongyang, which was agreed upon during the 20th inter-Korean ministerial talks earlier this month.
During the four-day Cabinet talks, Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to do test runs of cross-border trains in the first half of this year. They also reached an agreement to resume reunions of families split by the heavily fortified inter-Korean border from March 27 to 29, followed by face-to-face family reunions in early May.
“The two sides will discuss several pending issues especially how to guarantee military safety for the cross-border trains and their passengers,’’ an official of the ministry said on condition of anonymity.
Last May, Pyongyang unilaterally notified Seoul that it would postpone the test-run just a day before the scheduled date, May 25, under apparent pressure from its hard-line military.
The Stalinist state cited two reasons for canceling the run: the lack of security guarantees on both sides and the “extremely confrontational” climate in the South.
The aborted test-runs also nullified an economic accord under which South Korea was supposed to provide raw materials in exchange for access to the North’s minerals deposits.
The tracks, one line cutting across the western section of the border and the other crossing through the eastern side, have been completed and were set to undergo test runs.
Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, South Korea’s point man on North Korea, has been optimistic that the two sides will agree on a safety guarantee for the operation of the trains.
“During the ministerial talks, North Korea first proposed a working-level dialogue, so we think that the North has the will for the safety guarantee,’’ Lee told reporters earlier this month.
