Two Koreas to hold rail reconnection ceremony

SEOUL: North and South Korea agreed Thursday to hold a ceremonial groundbreaking later this month for a project to reconnect railways and roads across the divided peninsula, despite concerns of possible sanctions violations.

But the event on December 26 will not herald the start of actual work on the plans, which even if they go ahead will not see the border opened to unrestricted travel. The South’s President Moon Jae-in has been pushing engagement with the nuclear-armed North to try to persuade it to give up its weapons, but talks between Pyongyang and Washington have stalled with the US demanding it make further moves before any sanctions relief is offered. Connecting up the rail systems on either side of the Demilitarized Zone and refurbishing the North’s dilapidated tracks — a marked contrast to the South’s KTX high-speed lines — was one of the steps agreed by Moon and the North’s leader Kim Jong Un earlier year. But the project has been delayed amid concerns it could violate UN sanctions imposed on the North over its nuclear and missile programmes.