S. Korea looks to revive inter-Korean cooperation two years since historic summit

4.27 판문점 남북정상회담 2주년... 정부, 멈춘 남북협력에 다시 '드라이브'

Staying on that story,... the summit prompted a flurry of developments in terms of inter-Korean cooperation as well as on denuclearization, but since February 2019, everything has ground to a halt.
Facing the two year anniversary of the summit, South Korea is opting to push to revive inter-Korean cooperation, starting with railways first.
Oh Jung-hee goes over the ups and downs seen over the past two years.
On April 27th, 2018, the historic first summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took place... at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjeom.
The resulting Panmunjeom Declaration stipulated a number of promises, ranging from holding reunions of families separated by the Korean War and establishing a joint liaison office... to President Moon Jae-in visiting Pyeongyang in the fall.
Most of them were carried out successfully.
But there's still much work to be done to formally declare an end to the Korean War... and realize a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.
The Panmunjeom summit was a milestone event that ended 10 years of icy relations between the two Koreas.
In 2018 alone, the two Koreas held talks 36 times... and 7,500 people crossed the land border as part of civic exchanges.
The summit also led to the first-ever North Korea-U.S. summits that mainly dealt with North Korea's denuclearization.
But since the second Kim-Trump summit in Hanoi in February last year broke down without a deal, the North Korea-U.S. nuclear negotiations... as well as inter-Korean relations have all hit a snag.
Facing the second anniversary of the Panmunjeom summit, South Korea is now working to get inter-Korean cooperation back on track, starting with the project to connect the two sides' railways.
"This is a time when we need to maintain the momentum for inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation... and to prepare for an opportunity to improve inter-Korean relations. This railway connection project in particular has been agreed upon many times since the year 2000 in the Cabinet and in working-level talks. It's something we should seek to make happen quickly."
How North Korea will respond to Seoul's initiative remains to be seen.
But at least for the South Korean government, it's expected that the plan will get strong support from parliament, where the ruling Democratic Party now dominates after the recent general election.
Oh Jung-hee, Arirang News.

#drive #Panmunjeom #summit

📣 Arirang News(Facebook) :
📣 Arirang News(Twitter) :
📣 News Center(YouTube) :

arirang,tv,south,korea,korean,SouthKorea,ArirangNews,news,Seoul,arirangtv,아리랑tv,아리랑뉴스,뉴스,북한,northkorea,대한민국,미국,U.S.,policy,politics,문재인,트럼프,선언,미사일,무기,군대,전쟁,갈등,대통령,판문점,메시지,김정은,지도자,한반도,비핵화,정치,정책,외교,협력,정상회담,드라이브,NorthKorea,Panmunjeom,truce,President,MoonJaein,cooperation,Declaration,anniversary,KimJongun,leader,message,foreign,diplomacy,Trump,nuclear,talks,denuclearization,summit,drive,