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SEOUL (South Korea) – The UN Security Council has approved North Korea and South Korea's plan to conduct a joint study on the connection of their railways, thus exempting the project from heavy sanctions. imposed on the North because of its nuclear weapons program said Saturday.
During its three summit meetings this year with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, South Korean President Moon Jae-in has offered to help renovate North Korea's decrepit railway system and linking it to the south, this project being one of the most important. economic benefits that the North could expect if it were to denuclearize.
In order to stimulate the North's appetite, South Korea has proposed sending a train and engineers across the border to conduct a joint field study on the conditions of the North Korean rail system. North Korea quickly accepted.
However, plans to carry out this study were thwarted in August and again last month because of US fears that it might violate UN sanctions, which include severe restrictions on fuel deliveries. other goods to the north. South Korea is expected to bring fuel and equipment to the North to conduct this study.
More generally, the Trump administration did not want its South Korean ally to advance too quickly in inter-Korean projects without making concrete progress in the denuclearization of North Korea. Last month, President Trump forced South Korea to reconsider a proposal to lift some of its unilateral sanctions against North Korea, saying that Seoul could "Do nothing" without US approval.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the allies needed to make sure "we do not argue, we do not take any action or that the South Koreans take no action that the United States does not take action. another ignores. or did not have the opportunity to comment or give his opinion. "
"We want to make sure that peace on the peninsula and the denuclearization of North Korea are not lagging behind the intensification of reciprocal relations between the two Koreas," he said. "We see them as a tandem, as a common advance."
The apparent discord has raised fears of a break in the seven-decade alliance between the United States and South Korea.
This week, the Allies decided to dispel these concerns by creating a joint working group to coordinate their interactions with North Korea. Lee Do-hoon, a South Korean official who attended the group's first meeting this week, said later that any misunderstanding among the allies about the joint field study had been dispelled, saying Washington had strongly supported it.
"While we are pursuing key projects between North Korea and North Korea, we have affirmed that we would do so in the context of sanctions against the North and that we would cooperate closely with the international community," the ministry said on Saturday. Foreign Affairs of the South after the Security Council exempted the Security Council. railway field study of UN sanctions.
The Council's decision, however, covers only the field study and does not mean that South Korea is allowed to undertake the major investments that would be needed to renovate the North Korean railways. Washington insists, and Mr. Moon agrees, that such investments can only begin after the lifting of international sanctions.
Mr Moon was eager to strengthen his ties with North Korea. the first inter-Korean liaison office in September and the demolition of 11 military guard posts this month within the two and a half kilometer-wide demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. The North dismantled the same number of guard posts along the border. Moon urged Washington to relax sanctions when North Korea took significant steps to abandon its nuclear weapons. This would encourage North Korea to accelerate denuclearization, he said.
But Washington is deeply concerned that North Korea will deny its commitment to denuclearization once sanctions are eased. Thus, despite North Korea's efforts to obtain relief, Trump said Washington would maintain the "maximum" sanctions in force until the North becomes neutral.
Trump and Kim agreed in principle to meet again to follow up on their first summit in Singapore in June, during which Kim pledged to "work towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in September. back for new relations with Washington.
But subsequent talks stalled over the location and timing of the second summit and the details of North Korea's disarmament.
South Korea has long dreamed of building a trans-Korean railway that could link its trains to China and the Trans-Siberian railway. The north is between the south and China, and such a rail link would give the south a faster way to send the exports that are now shipped by sea to China and Europe. It would also provide a shortcut for importing Russian oil and other natural resources.
But analysts say the creation of such a rail link would be a huge task, which would require lengthy talks to build trust between North and South and billions of dollars to renovate the decrepit North's rail system, not to mention the lifting of international sanctions.
The two Koreas briefly connected short sections of railway to their border in 2007, but additional efforts to reconnect the systems were suspended as the two countries' relations sheltered themselves from nuclear pursuits. North.
