Seoul seeks more exemptions for railway project with Pyongyang

The railway of the Gyeongui Line along the west coast from Dorasan Station in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. / Korea Times file

By Kim Bo-eun

South Korea will ask the United States to review its plan to hold a joint groundbreaking ceremony with North Korea for their inter-Korean railway project to see if this violates sanctions on the North, the unification ministry said Thursday.

A ministry official told reporters that South Korean officials “will discuss with the U.S. in a working group meeting whether holding the ceremony also calls for exemptions of sanctions on North Korea.”

South Korea and the U.S. recently launched a working group on North Korea to discuss inter-Korean projects amid North Korea's denuclearization process.

The first working group meeting held last week drew Washington's support for an inter-Korean inspection of train tracks in the North, which is part of the process to connect the rail networks of the two Koreas. U.S. support for the inspections led to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) granting exemptions to sanctions on North Korea to enable the project to take place.

The official said officials “will need to look into where the groundbreaking ceremony will take place, and whether any supplies that will be taken there go against sanctions.”

He also hinted at the possibility of holding the ceremony within the year, as leaders of the two Koreas agreed at their third summit in September.

An 18-day inspection of train tracks along North Korea's east and west coasts will begin today.

It was reported in the media that the UNSC committee on North Korea sanctions is reportedly looking into whether a luxury vehicle that chauffeured President Moon Jae-in at his Pyongyang summit in September was there as a result of violated sanctions.

RFA on Thursday reported the committee is checking how the Mercedes-Benz vehicle was brought into the country.

It is the vehicle Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un rode during their car parade in Pyongyang. It is presumed to be an S600 sedan.

The RFA stated that this vehicle appears similar to one the U.S. government pointed out as violating sanctions on North Korea.

The U.S. Department of Commerce on Sept. 4 added Ma Yunong and his firm Seajet International, as well as the Hong Kong-based ZM International Company, to its list of sanctioned entities, for selling an armor-plated Mercedes-Benz vehicle to North Korea.

The department's end-use review committee stated a Mercedes-Benz vehicle that was spotted at a North Korean military parade had been manufactured in Europe, had bulletproofing added in the U.S. and was then brought into North Korea via China.

An official on the UNSC sanctions committee on North Korea also reportedly stated the committee is looking into whether the 2 tons of pine mushrooms North Korea authorities sent to the South as a gift is in violation of sanctions.