Koreas gain UN sanctions exemption for joint rail survey

South Korea said on Saturday the United Nations Security Council granted an exemption to sanctions that will allow surveys on North Korean railway sections that will connect both countries.

The surveys would require the South to take to the North fuel and a variety of goods, including possibly cars to test on northern tracks.

The Koreas plan to hold a groundbreaking ceremony by the end of the year on an ambitious project to connect their railways and roads as agreed by their leaders. But beyond surveys and tape-cuttings, they cannot move much further along without the lifting of US-led sanctions against North Korea, which isn’t likely before Pyongyang takes firmer steps toward relinquishing its nuclear weapons and missiles.

The plan to modernise North Korea’s outdated railways and roads and reconnect them with the South was among many agreements reached between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who met three times this year amid a diplomatic push that eased tensions over the North’s nuclear programme. Kim also met President Donald Trump in Singapore in June, when they issued a statement about a nuclear-free Korean peninsula without describing how and when it would occur.

North Korea insists that sanctions should be removed first before any progress in nuclear negotiations. There’s also unease between the United States and South Korea over the pace of inter-Korean engagement, which Washington says should move in tandem with US-led efforts to denuclearise the North.