By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter
South and North Korea began working-level talks on Wednesday to discuss Seoul’s provision of raw materials to the North on the condition that Pyongyang carries out the scheduled inter-Korean railways test run, the Ministry of Unification said.
The three-day talks opened at the inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong, North Korea, after the 13th inter-Korean economic cooperation meeting in Pyongyang in mid-April.
The North agreed then to conduct the long-delayed train test runs on May 17 and to cooperate with the South in jointly developing underground mineral resources in the Stalinist state.
Under the agreement, South Korea agreed to provide raw materials next month to help the North produce clothing, footwear and soap.
A South Korean delegation is scheduled to visit a couple of envisioned development sites soon after the supply of raw materials.
Lee Ung-hui, chief of inter-Korean economic cooperation at the ministry, led the eight-member South Korean delegation. The North’s delegation was headed by Ri Yong-ho, the ministry said in a statement.
Initially, South Korea agreed to offer raw materials worth some $80 million to help the North’s struggling light industry sector in 2005.
In return, the North was to provide the South with minerals, such as zinc and magnesite, after mines were developed with South Korean investments guaranteed by Pyongyang.
But the economic accord was delayed after North Korea cancelled the scheduled test runs of cross-border railways in May last year just a day before the scheduled date under apparent pressure from its hard-line military.
The reconnection of severed train lines was one of the tangible inter-Korean rapprochement projects agreed upon following the historic summit between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000.
The tracks, one line cutting across the western section of the border and the other crossing the eastern side, have been completed and are set to undergo test runs. A set of parallel roads has been in use since 2005 for South Koreans traveling to the North.