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A joint inspection team surveys a portion of railway track along the Gyeongui Line in North Korea that passes through a tunnel. (provided by the Ministry of Unification)

South and North Korea have decided to hold the groundbreaking ceremony for a project to modernize the North Korean railroads on the Gyeongui (Seoul–Sinuiju) and East Sea lines and link them with the South Korean railroad network.

The ceremony is scheduled to be held on Dec. 26, at Panmun Station in the North Korean city of Kaesong. In short, the two sides are planning to implement the agreement reached by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in their Pyongyang Joint Declaration on September to hold the groundbreaking in 2018.

This decision appears aimed at making clear that South and North Korea are still strongly committed to cooperation despite the deadlock in the North Korea-US negotiations and the confusion about whether Kim Jong-un will be paying a reciprocal visit to Seoul before the end of the year. But since inter-Korean sanctions prevent construction on the railroads from beginning immediately, the groundbreaking is likely to be more symbolic than substantive.

“During a working-level meeting held at the Inter-Korean Liaison Office in Kaesong, it was agreed to hold the groundbreaking at Panmun Station in Kaesong on Dec. 26. The groundbreaking will be attended by about 100 people from the South and 100 from the North, and discussion will continue about the details of the event,” the Unification Ministry announced on Dec. 13. Panmun Station is the southernmost train station on the North Korean stretch of the Gyeongui line.

South and North Korea reportedly want the rank of the attendees to be as high as possible to give the groundbreaking more weight. But since South Korean President Moon Jae-in has openly said he’s not planning to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the ceremony, for now there’s little chance of a summit occurring on that occasion.

“Starting construction on linking [South and North Korean roads and railways] could be in violation of international sanctions. But as I see it, we should still be able to hold the groundbreaking ceremony, since it means the beginning of the project, if not the actual construction,” Moon said during a press conference held aboard the presidential jet as it was flying to New Zealand on Dec. 2.

These comments reflect both the practical challenge of easing sanctions so that construction can begin and Moon’s desire to hold the groundbreaking before the end of the year, even if that ceremony is purely symbolic.

In a Dec. 13 briefing, Unification Ministry Spokesperson Baik Tae-hyun said that even if a groundbreaking ceremony is held, additional surveys and basic design work “would need to take place for actual construction to begin.”

At the same time, he stressed the positive significance of the event.

“I see a groundbreaking ceremony as significant in showing South and North Korea’s commitment to actively cooperating on the railway and road linkage and modernization effort going forward,” he said.

Indeed, with a joint survey of the East Sea Line’s North Korean highway section yet to even be scheduled, the agreement to hold a groundbreaking ceremony on Dec. 26 strongly suggests a political commitment to sending a message regarding inter-Korean cooperation rather than a decision at the practical and technical levels. The two sides’ break with precedent in respectively appointing Secretary General Kim Chang-su and Deputy Director Hwang Chung-song to the working-level meeting from their joint office in Kaesong is also being seen as an extension of behind-the-scenes discussions on the issue.

South and North Korea finished previous joint surveys of the Seoul-Sinuiju line’s North Korean road section on Aug. 13–20 and its railway section on Nov. 30–Dec. 5, with another joint survey of the East Sea Line’s railway section currently taking place from Dec. 8 to 17.

The two sides have recently been intensifying their commitment to cooperation with substantive steps to implement terms of their basic agreement, including mutual examinations of guard posts selected for pilot withdrawal in the DMZ (Dec. 12), a South Korea visit by a North Korean table tennis squad (Dec. 11), working-level talks on public health and healthcare (Dec. 12), a Pyongyang visit by a forestry cooperation delegation (Dec. 11–13), and a second round of athletic subcommittee talks (Dec. 14).

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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