09-151.pdf

through telephone notification and liaison officers’ contacts, it was
decided to hold working-level military talks in “Re-unification House”
north of the MDL and “Peace House” south of it. Working-level talks
between the KPA and the South Korean Ministry of National Defence
on the areas of North-South jurisdiction and military guarantees for
the construction of railways and motorways to connect the two Koreas
were held on November 28, December 5 and December 21, 2000, and
January 31 and February 8, 2001, the first three of which were called
by the North and the other two by the South. An agreement to build
railways and roads was reached at the final meeting.
Later, on September 14 and 17, 2002, the sixth and seventh
rounds proposed by the South Korean Ministry of National Defence
were held. On September 14, an agreement on the military aspects of
opening railways and roads that included the removal of mines and
the connection of communication lines was adopted. On September
17, North and South Korean military authorities signed “The Agreement
on Materials for Equipment for Reconnection of Inter-Korean
Railways and Highways.” In accordance with the agreement, the
removal of mines was jointly completed by military personnel for the
East Sea railway on December 3 and for the Seoul-Sinûiju railway on
December 6 the same year. On June 14, 2003, the railways were
ceremonially joined in the DMZ, but since gaps remained on both
lines on the Northern side, it was only a symbolic gesture. 357
In 2000, Jhe published to the author’s knowledge the most comprehensive
evaluation ever of how the Armistice Agreement has been
357_ Ch’oe, op. cit., 2002, p. 130; Hapch’am chôngbo ponbu, ibid., 2003, pp. 30, 31,
32, 42, 52; Jonsson, ibid., p. 87; Lim, Kaesong Industrial Complex: History, Pending
Issues, and Outlook (Seoul: Haenam Publishing Company, 2007), pp. 227-8.
470 Peace-keeping in the Korean Peninsula