The two Koreas will launch on-site inspections of rail conditions in the North later this week as part of their joint project to reconnect severed railways across the border.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said on Wednesday that the two sides agreed to conduct the survey for 18 days starting on Friday.
Inspectors will check the rail conditions of the Gyeongui Line in the west and the Donghae Line in the east, spanning a total of 12-hundred kilometers.
The survey will allow a South Korean train to travel in North Korea for the first time in ten years.
Following the inter-Korean summit in April, the two Koreas in August sought to run a South Korean train along the length of North Korea to the Chinese border to survey rail conditions. But, the effort was thwarted by the South Korea-based UN Command, which did not approve the crossing of the military demarcation line.
The breakthrough came when the UN Security Council last week granted its sanctions exemption. South Korea and the U.S. are reported to have sorted out the issue during their recent working group meeting.
The two Koreas now hope to hold a groundbreaking ceremony by the year’s end as agreed by their leaders in September.