연말 철도착공식•내년 남북유해발굴, 대북제재 관문 넘어
America's top envoy on North Korea, Stephen Biegun, met with his counterpart in Seoul.
It seems they've found a way to enable the ground-breaking ceremony for the inter-Korean railway project to be held.
Also, Washington claims to be ready to get things going with Pyeongyang, on preparing for their second summit.
Lee Ji-won has our top story.
South Korea and the U.S. seem to have cleared what might have been hurdles to next week's groundbreaking ceremony for the inter-Korean project to connect railways and roads.
"At the working group meeting today, we discussed holding the groundbreaking ceremony for the railway and road project as planned next week."
South Korea's nuclear envoy was speaking to the press Friday afternoon after attending the second meeting of the Seoul-Washington working group.
The groundbreaking ceremony, slated for next Wednesday, is only symbolic.
Any actual construction will begin only in accordance with progress in Pyeongyang's denuclearization and after waivers are secured on international sanctions.
The ceremony itself won't violate the sanctions, but it needs to be confirmed that the items that will have to be brought to the North for the ceremony won't violate them either.
Lee also said that the two Koreas will go ahead with the joint recovery of war remains in the DMZ... starting early next year... and that he and the U.S. side were able to resolve the issue of providing North Koreans with antiviral medication, though he didn't elaborate on that.
Among the other issues discussed by the two sides... were holding a video conference for families from the two Koreas separated for decades by war.
Meanwhile, Lee's counterpart, Stephen Biegun,... said that the two allies exchanged ideas on how to move ahead in talks with the North, which included the humanitarian assistance the U.S. is willing to consider giving to the North.
When he arrived in Seoul on Wednesday, Biegun announced that the U.S. will review its policies on giving the North humanitarian assistance, and will consider easing the restrictions on Americans traveling to the regime.
But when asked about the 8 million U.S. dollars worth of humanitarian aid the South Korean government previously allocated for the North, Biegun said that more discussions are needed.
"We're just beginning a process in the U.S. and we're going to review how to approve these licenses and we will be learning and working with our friends in skorea on next steps in the new year."
While stressing that Washington's policy review does not mean it's lifting or easing the sanctions on North Korea, the nuclear envoy said Washington is "eager to move" to the next stage with the North Koreans, which will include discussions on a 2nd Pyeongyang-Washington summit.
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.
