Announcement is significant because it is a project that North Korea wants, and because it represents a small but important concession by the U. S., Pamela Falk reports
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said Saturday that the United Nations Security Council granted an exemption to sanctions that will allow surveys on North Korean railroad sections that would connect North and South Korea and revamp the North’s failing railroads.
The announcement is significant because it is a project that North Korea wants, and because it represents a small but important concession by the U. S. to Pyongyang in order to move forward in talks on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, CBS News’ Pamela Falk reports.
The field surveys — which would require the South to bring fuel and a variety of goods to the North, including possibly cars to test on northern tracks — were resisted for months by the Trump administration as a violation of U. N. sanctions. That changed, however, when the U. S. and South Korea established a working group to ensure that they were coordinating moves forward with the North, and not leaving each other out of negotiations.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s office released a statement saying it was meaningful that the plan to jointly examine North Korean railroads gained “recognition and support from the United States and international community” and that the project would allow inter-Korean cooperation to “enter a new level.
