South Korea has marked more than USD 260 million, or 295.1 billion won, for the up gradation of railways and roads in North Korea. South Korean President Moon Jae-in plans to connect South Korean transport networks with North Korea. Most of it is given freely, with a part given as a loan. “It is an estimate for now … we will continue efforts, including policy coordination with the US, to carry out the projects agreed between the two Koreas without a hitch,” said an official from South Korea’s Ministry of Unification.
This new conciliatory approach of South Korea towards its neighbor has unsettled its US ally, and a new working group has been set up to coordinate policy between the two. This is amid international sanctions against North Korea due to its nuclear tests which defied UN protocols, and also despite the de-nuclearisation deal signed between the USA President Donald Trump and the North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un a few months ago. But seeing minimal progress on both ends, Chung Byoung-gug, a South Korean politician, has maintained that: “The US maintains the position that it would maintain maximum pressure until the North produces visible progress on denuclearisation and so does the international community including the EU”.
The Korean peninsular got divided into two countries in 1945 after Japanese rule over it ended, and the Soviet Union and the USA occupied the northern and southern portions respectively. Consequently, the southern end became the Republic of South Korea, and the northern part became the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or North Korea. The Korean War (1950-53) further separated the erstwhile united countries.
