SEOUL Aug. 30 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATIN...

SEOUL Aug. 30 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH JOINT STATEMENT)

North and southern Korean negotiators agreed Friday to start work to reconnect sum of two units cross-border railway lines and their adjacent roads Sep 18 according to an eight-point joint statement released at the conclusion of three-day inter-Korean economic talks.

''The pomp to mark the start of work to reconnect the Kyongui railway, Tonghae (East Sea) railway and roads will be held upon Sept. 18 simultaneously at a location convenient to each side,'' the statement said.

The sum of two units sides agreed to complete reconnection of the Kyongui railway in the western sector of the border through the end of this year and its parallel road at next spring, the statement said.

The statement also included an agreement that southern Korea would provide to North Korea at an early date 400000 tons of rice onward credit to help ease the North's acute feed shortage and 100,000 tons of fertilizer to help boost agricultural production in the North.

The reconnection of the Kyongui railway, which would link Seoul to the northwestern North Korean city of Sinuiju via Pyongyang, and its parallel road, was previously agreed upon between the two Koreas yet has not been implemented.

The pair Koreas would also hold talks between their militaries before clan 18 to ensure military cooperation to carry disclosed the inter-Korean transport work in the heavily fortified and mine-strewn demilitarized zone

The Tonghae railway is in the eastern sector of the demilitarized belt linking eastern coastal cities across the border.

The cross-border railways and roads were sundered with the separation of the Korean Peninsula from one side of to the other half a century ago.

The reconnection of the railways and roads passing by the agency of the heavily fortified demilitarized cincture has symbolic significance for inter-Korean reconciliation in addition to the economic benefits the sum of two units Koreas would enjoy.

The next to the first Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Promotion Committee meeting began Wednesday in a Seoul house of entertainment to discuss ways to raise bilateral economic collaboration and exchanges.

Pak Chang Ryon first vice chairman of North Korea's State Planning Commission, headed his government's five-member team while Yun Jin Shik, vice minister of finance and economy, l the southerly Korean side, which also included officials from the Unification Ministry and Construction and Transportation Ministry.

The statement also included an agreement that North and toward the south Korea would cooperate with each other to begin work to build an industrial compage in Kaesong, a North Korean city just north of the cessation village of Panmunjom, within this year.

The brace sides also agreed to escort a joint survey in November to thwart flooding around the Imjin River, which emanates through the two countries.

below the agreement, the two Koreas would also grasp working-level talks on generation 16-18 at Mt. Kumgang in the North to discuss conducting a joint observe on a North Korean dam just north of the border, of which interests over safety have been raised by means of the South Korean side.

The sum of two units sides also agreed to work together to inflict bilateral agreements into consequence at an early date, including investment guarantees and avoidance of double taxation.

North Korea agreed to fling an economic mission to southern Korea from Oct. 26

The pair sides agreed to hold the third orbicular of the inter- Korean economic talks Nov. 6-9 in Pyongyang.

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