South Korea urged North Korea on Monday to hold military talks this week to prepare for the first test runs of railways across their heavily fortified frontier in half a century. Seoul has suggested that chief delegates to the working-level talks meet Thursday at the truce village of Panmunjom, defence ministry spokesman Song Gi-Hong told AFP.
North Korea has yet to reply to the offer, he added.
The plan to connect the railways across one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints is a flagship project for relations between two nations which have remained technically at war since the 1950-53 conflict.
Following a historic inter-Korean summit in 2000, the two sides completed laying tracks alongside roads that opened in 2005 for limited traffic.
Seoul asked last year that the North's military provide a safety guarantee for the two lines, one from Seoul to Sinuiju on the Korean-Chinese border and the other along the east coast.
But North Korea scrapped trial runs in May last year after demanding that a contested sea border be redrawn off the west coast.
Relations have been improving in recent years despite the North's missile launches and nuclear test last year. Two Seoul-funded joint projects are operating in the North, a tourist resort at Mount Kumgang and an industrial estate at Kaesong.
The two Koreas agreed to conduct the railway test runs on May 17 when they met in April in Pyongyang to discuss joint economic projects. They also agreed to make "positive efforts" to reach a military safety guarantee, the main topic of this week's talks if they go ahead.
At the Pyongyang meeting the South agreed to resume its annual 400,000 tons of rice aid to the impoverished North, but said shipments would be linked to progress on an international agreement for Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament.
Source: Agence France-Presse
