It appears the UNC is on board with letting this happen:
This photo, provided by South Korea’s unification ministry on July 24, 2018, shows officials from the two Koreas checking the North Korean side of the western Gyeongui railway. (Yonhap)
South and North Korea are likely to start their joint on-site inspection as early as this week for a project to modernize and re-link railways across their border, government officials said Sunday.
At high-level talks last week, the two Koreas agreed to begin field surveys of the western Gyeongui railway in late October and the Donghae railway along their east coast in November.
“The Koreas are known to be discussing ways to conduct the inspection (on the North section) of the Gyeongui line starting late this week,” a government official said.
“The schedule is flexible, depending on consultations between the government and the United Nations Command (UNC) over the passage of the Military Demarcation Line,” he added.
In August, the Koreas failed to carry out a joint railway field survey as the U.S.-led UNC did not approve the plan, citing “procedural” problems, a move widely seen as U.S. objection to the inter-Korean railway project on the basis that it might hamper sanctions. “As far as I’m concerned, Seoul’s consultations with Pyongyang as well as the UNC are smoothly under way,” the official said. [Yonhap]
It looks like President Moon’s attempt to lobby European governments to drop North Korean sanctions is not working:
French President Emmanuel Macron
President Moon Jae-in has told French President Emmanuel Macron that North Korea’s denuclearization needs to be stimulated further by easing UN sanctions if the North’s measures to scrap its nuclear program are believed to have reached an irreversible level.
But North Korea has not remotely reached a point where denuclearization is irreversible. It has not even started. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un flatly refused to give the U.S. even a partial inventory of its nuclear facilities and stockpiles when visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pleaded with him, and instead demanded that the U.S. officially declare an end to the Korean War to “build trust.”
The first step to denuclearization must be reporting all nuclear facilities and fissile materials, because how else will anyone know whether North Korea is scrapping anything? This is a no-brainer. Yet the North is vehemently protesting before taking even the first step, claiming that the demand is tantamount to “mafia-like tactics.”
Yet the South Korean president labors under the delusion that North Korea’s denuclearization has progressed significantly. During his summit last month with U.S. President Donald Trump, Moon even said the North’s denuclearization had almost reached an “irreversible” level already. U.S. nuclear experts, by contrast, say Pyongyang’s gestures so far — dismantling a moribund nuclear test site in Punggye-ri and a static missile launch pad it no longer needs — do not qualify as denuclearization at all.
Moon hopes that North Korea’s denuclearization can reach an irreversible level in a few months and is going around the world asking global leaders to stimulate the process by easing sanctions. Macron quite rightly brushed him off, saying sanctions must continue until “concrete denuclearization steps are taken.” [Chosun Ilbo]
It looks like the Pope is willing to be a propaganda tool for the Kim regime to make it look like they really have reformed and are nice guys hosting the Pope. This charade is all in an effort to get sanctions lifted in return for doing little to nothing in return in regards to denuclearization:
South Korean President Moon Jae-in (L) holds hands with Pope Francis while paying a courtesy call on the pontiff in the Vatican on Oct. 18, 2018. (Yonhap)
Pope Francis expressed his willingness Thursday to visit North Korea if officially invited, also saying he will “certainly” respond to such an invitation from the communist state.
The remarks came in a meeting with South Korean president Moon Jae-in, who paid a courtesy call on the pope to deliver a verbal invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for the pope to visit Pyongyang.
“The pope said ‘(I) will unconditionally give an answer if an (official) invitation arrives and I can go’,” Moon’s top press secretary, Yoon Young-chan, told reporters. [Yonhap]
Despite the Moon admin saying it's "routine, the #SouthKorean banks are deathly scared of potential secondary sanctions. So should Moon and his circle, if they care about #SouthKorean economy. https://t.co/Nzwy8i8Yz2
Ambassador Harris recently made a very subtle message to the Moon administration in regards to sanctions on North Korea:
South Korea and the United States should have a “common voice” in dealing with North Korea rather than putting priority on improving inter-Korean relations over denuclearization, U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Harry Harris said Wednesday.
“We are, of course, cognizant of the priority that President Moon Jae-in and his administration have placed on improving South-North relations. I believe this inter-Korean dialogue must remain linked to denuclearization, and South Korea synchronized with the United States,” Harris said during a seminar co-hosted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies and the Wilson Center.
“There, of course, remains a lot of work to be done, but I believe that if the United States and South Korea continue to approach North Korea with a common voice, we can turn the commitments that were made in Pyongyang, Panmunjeom and Singapore into reality.”
He made his remarks amid the recent dissonance between South Korea and the U.S. in dealing with easing sanction against the North. He reiterated Washington’s stance of maintaining sanctions against Pyongyang, while expressing discontent over Seoul’s move to prioritize improving inter-Korean relations and easing the sanctions.
The two countries have been showing different approaches to achieving the denuclearization of North Korea. President Moon Jae-in, on a state visit to European countries, has urge them to ease the sanctions somewhat. Meanwhile, the U.S. has been warning South Korea that lifting them, along with related actions, should only take place with Washington’s approval. [Korea Times]
Hopefully “progress” with North Korea’s denuclearization doesn’t reach a point where Secretary Mattis has to become the one to make it happen:
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said there is progress on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, although it remains a difficult issue.
Mattis told reporters traveling with him to Vietnam Monday that the efforts to denuclearize North Korea continue to be diplomatically-led.
He cited U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent trip to Pyongyang, where the top American diplomat met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to push progress on denuclearization and plan a second summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump.
“There is progress,” Mattis said. “We know it’s going to be difficult as they deal with this difficult issue. No surprise there.” [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but this was a pretty vanilla statement about the “progress” being made.
Seriously? South Korea agreed to enforce the North's writ against defections? Isn't that essentially China's refugee policy & an agreement to tear up the 1951 Refugee Convention? https://t.co/LMeHeXmuKT
It will be interesting to see how the US reacts to this:
The two Koreas and the United Nations Command (UNC) discussed disarmament of the Joint Security Area (JSA) Tuesday amid expectations for unarmed soldiers to “guard” the inter-Korean border area in a near future.
“The three-way consultation body had negotiation on measures on having a weapons-free JSA, including the withdrawal of firearms and guard posts,” according to the Ministry of National Defense.
Army Colonel Cho Yong-geun headed the South’s three-member delegation, with the North led by Colonel Om Chang-nam, according to the ministry. United States Army Colonel Burke Hamilton also represented the UNC for the hours-long discussions.
The trilateral meeting is aimed at finalizing details to realize complete disarmament at the JSA. The two Koreas reached a consensus over the plan by signing a joint military agreement during an inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang last month. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised if this just gets slow rolled because who wants to put faith in the North Koreans complying with this agreement?
One way the US could respond is that they will disarm the JSA if the North Koreans agree to withdraw their artillery 50 kilometers north of the DMZ.
