South, North Korea agree to modernise cross-border

South and North Koreas have agreed to modernise cross-border roads between the cities of the North Korean border city of Kaesong and Pyongyang, a joint statement released on Thursday, said.

The two countries also agreed to modernise cross-border roads between North Korea’s port of Wonsan and South Korea’s Goseong County.

Earlier in the day, the South and North Korean officials met on the northern side of the truce village of Panmunjom to hold working-level talks on the issue as a follow-up to the agreements reached between the two countries at a historic summit in April.

“The South and the North reaffirmed their belief that the project on modernising Donghae (Wonsan-Goseong) and Gyeongui (Kaesong-Pyongyang) lines is significantly important for achieving balanced development and co-prosperity,’’ the statement, released by the South Korean Unification Ministry, read.

The sides agreed on a number of practical steps, including setting up joint research teams and carrying out a joint field survey in the western area in early August.

The two Koreas also decided that design and construction of roads would be conducted jointly.

“The groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled to take place as soon as possible after the necessary preparations are made,’’ the statement said.

The long-standing tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang started to de-escalate at the start of 2018, when the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, announced his decision to resume talks on denuclearisation.

In late April, Kim met with South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, and agreed to jointly work on peacefully resolving the crisis and to renew economic cooperation in several areas, including rebuilding cross-border railways and roads.