A file picture shows cross-border railroads, which have not been used due to sanctions. [Yonhap News Photo]
SEOUL -- South Korea can embark on full inter-Korean economic cooperation such as the modernization of North Korea's outdated railroad network if the international community lifts sanctions, a top official said Wednesday.
The basic position of the international community is that sanctions can be lifted after the North Korean nuclear issue is resolved, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told a forum in Seoul, adding South Korea should respect an international consensus.
"In the face of continued sanctions on North Korea, full-fledged economic cooperation seems to be difficult in reality," he said. "If the issue of sanctions is solved, we can prepare to start economic cooperation immediately."
Cho's comment came a day after the two Koreas agreed to conduct a joint study on modernizing North Korean railroads at an early date. The first joint study will start on July 24 at the North Korean side of a severed cross-border line on the western side of the border.
Based on the results of the joint study, South Korea promised to carry out follow-up measures such as the reconstruction of railway stations and related facilities from the border up to the northwestern border town of Sinuiju.
On Tuesday, Vice Transport Minister Kim Jeong-ryeol, the South's chief delegate at inter-Korean railway talks, said that full cooperation between South and North Korean railway authorities would depend on progress in negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington on denuclearization.
At an inter-Korean summit in April, the two Koreas agreed to connect and modernize cross-border railways and roads. The two Koreas opened an inter-Korean industrial zone in Kaesong just north of the border in December 2004 as well as cross-border roads and rail tracks. Seoul shut down the industrial park in 2016 in retaliation for the North's ballistic missile and nuclear tests.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
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