A train carrying a team of South Korean officials who will inspect railway sections in the North with their North Korean counterparts travels through the demilitarized zone in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. / Korea Times photo by Shin Sang-soon

By Kim Bo-eun

Inter-Korean projects, which were put on hold for months after the summit between leaders of the South and North in September, are back on track.

The long-stalled joint inspections of railway sections in the North began Friday, a key step in the project to connect railways of the South and North.

The Koreas also went forward with their plan on forestry cooperation, with the South delivering 50 tons of pesticides to the North, and discussing the issue of modernizing tree nurseries there.

The stalling was seen as being due to The U.S. disapproval of the Koreas moving forward with joint projects while no progress was being seen regarding North Korea's denuclearization.

The government's stance was to advance inter-Korean relations to create a virtuous cycle involving the North's nuclear disarmament.

Now that the South and North are moving forward with cooperation including the crucial railway project, hopes are growing that this will get Pyongyang to start moving on the denuclearization process.

Inter-Korean projects

President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to connect the railroads of the South and North at their first summit in April. To enable this, the Koreas had sought to jointly inspect the North's railway lines since July, but the plan was put on hold.

Meanwhile, the two leaders agreed at their summit in September to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the railway connection project within the year. This appeared impossible as the plan for North Korea's railway inspections continued to be pushed back, due to disapproval from the U.S.

However, after a working group on North Korea comprised of South Korean and U.S. officials was launched last week and held its first meeting, Washington stated its support for the railway inspection project. The United Nations Security Council consequently granted exemptions for sanctions to enable the inspections.

The 18-day inspection began last week, making it possible for the groundbreaking to be held this month. Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said the government would make preparations to enable the ceremony to take place as planned. Pyongyang wants economic cooperation with Seoul, and the railway project is seen as a symbolic venture that could strengthen ties.

The Koreas also made progress on forestry cooperation, another of the agreements reached at the summit. The South provided the North with pesticides and discussed a plan to modernize tree nurseries in the North by the end of this month.

Impact on denuclearization progress

In the meantime, high-level talks between Pyongyang and Washington, which need to address the topic of denuclearization and corresponding sanction-easing measures that will be taken, have yet to be held. There has been little progress on North Korea's denuclearization since Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump affirmed this goal at their historic summit in June. Pyongyang continues to call for sanctions to be eased, but Washington's stance is that complete denuclearization needs to be achieved first.

A high-level meeting led by U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo had initially been set for Nov. 8, but was postponed by Pyongyang. The U.S. reportedly proposed holding the talks from Nov. 27 through 28, but North Korea did not respond.

Washington also invited Pyongyang to working-level talks in Vienna, Austria after the inter-Korean summit in September, where Pyongyang pledged to take denuclearization steps. But working-level talks have yet to be held.

Analysts believe advances in inter-Korean affairs could help this process move forward.

"Basically, the aim of Pyongyang and Seoul, and Pyongyang and Washington is to establish a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula and achieve denuclearization," Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean studies in Seoul, said.

"In order to achieve this aim, the countries need to show their determination and create the circumstances in which this will become feasible. For South and North Korea this means cooperation," he said, positively evaluating the recent inter-Korean developments.

The professor said these developments also bear significance because the steps taken are part of carrying out agreements reached at inter-Korean summits.

"It will send a message to the U.S. that carrying out agreements matters," he said.

If things go well, a high-level meeting may take place in early December, he said.

Professor Park Won-gon of Handong Global University said "the second and third summits between Moon and Kim show inter-Korean efforts can lead to a breakthrough in an impasse between Pyongyang and Washington."