North Korea and South Korea reached an agreement on Monday to modernize and eventually connect their railways and roads across their border in late November or early December, media reported.

Chinese experts said on Monday that although China and South Korea share many consensuses on rewarding North Korea for its sincerity to denuclearize, Seoul can't get rid of Washington's influence on sanctions against Pyongyang, because the US has very effective leverage over this issue.

The agreement between the two Koreas was reached during high-level talks at the truce village of Panmunjom led by South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon and Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland of North Korea, Yonhap News reported on Monday.

"The South and North will hold a ground-breaking ceremony on connecting and modernizing their rail and road systems along the eastern and western regions either in late November or early December," the two sides said in a joint press statement issued after their discussions, Yonhap reported.

"We are at a very critical moment in denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and advancing inter-Korean relations, and a second North Korea-US summit is forthcoming," Cho told reporters on Monday before leaving for the Demilitarized Zone, Reuters reported.

Zheng Jiyong, director of the Center for Korean Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, told the Global Times on Monday that "many facts have already proven that North Korea doesn't want to return to the confrontation era, which is against its interests and security. So, North Korea can be trusted on its promise to denuclearize, and it deserves a reward."

US shadow over S.Korea

"However, US President Donald Trump and his administration do not want to see the détente between the two Koreas going too fast," Zheng noted.

Zheng added that Trump wants to continue to use the peninsula issue in US elections, "not just the upcoming midterms, but also the next presidential election. He wants the issue to sustain his political interests to win votes."

A quick solution which could bring permanent peace and denuclearization in the short term does not fit in Trump's plans, even if South Korean President Moon Jae-in desperately wants to push for it, Zheng noted.

Moon said Sunday that the international community needs to prove that North Korea has made the right decision to give up its nuclear ambitions, the Yonhap reported on Sunday.

"As North Korea stands before the world after voluntarily coming out of isolation, it's the international community's turn to answer North Korea's tough decision and efforts," Moon said in a written interview with France-based daily newspaper Le Figaro.

Prior to Moon's remarks, South Korea moved to smooth an emerging diplomatic row with the US on Thursday, disowning any plan to lift sanctions against North Korea after Trump's blunt remarks that Seoul could "do nothing" without Washington's "approval," the New York Times reported on Thursday.

Unfortunately, South Korea cannot ignore the US, Zheng said.

"The US could just destroy, in one night, everything the two Koreas have achieved so far. For instance, it could restart joint military drills," he pointed out.

Zheng stressed that although China shares more in common with South Korea than the US on reducing sanctions against the North, this won't lead to deeper cooperation between China and South Korea on the issue.

Chinese analysts also stressed that the UN Security Council should decide whether to maintain or reduce sanctions against North Korea, and that any unilateral action would have a negative impact on the progress made.

 (By Yang Sheng) 

Source: Global Times 

Published: October 15, 2018