The real question for 2019 is not whether Kim Jong Un will soon give up his nuclear weapons but whether and how South and North Korea will continue to drive the peace process after a year which saw some of the most dramatic steps towards Korean reconciliation since the Korean War. The United States and the UN Security Council gave their support for the ceremony, South Korean officials said, but construction cannot begin while sanctions block the shipment of energy and metal products, as well as other supplies. The United States and North Korea have been entrenched in negotiations since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed at their June 12 summit to “work toward complete denuclearization.”

In the roughly six months since, few concrete developments have been made. North Korean Ri Son Gwon who oversees the North’s exchanges with the South, his South Korean counterpart Cho Myoung-Gyon and transport officials from China, Russia and Mongolia were among the hundreds of people attending the rail event in the North Korean border city of Gaeseong. Pyongyang’s heightened request comes just a day after the U.S. was in talks about easing a travel ban and letting American aid workers deliver humanitarian relief to North Korea, The Wall Street Journal reported.
North Korea and South Korea hold a ceremony for a project to reconnect rail and road links, although construction cannot start while sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs remain in place.