SOUTH KOREA sent an advance team yesterday to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to prepare for a groundbreaking ceremony later this week to connect railways and roads across the border, according to Seoul’s unification ministry.

The advance team, composed of 31 officials from the unification and transport ministries, left early in the morning for the DPRK’s border town of Kaesong. Among them, 27 officials would stay there for the ceremony preparations.

Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to hold the groundbreaking ceremony at Panmun Station in Kaesong on Wednesday.

On Sunday, South Korea dispatched 14 officials to the Panmun Station for the ceremony preparations. They returned home late Sunday.

Following their first summit in April at the border village of Panmunjom, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un agreed to modernize and eventually re-connect railways and roads along the western and eastern Korean Peninsula.

Moon and Kim agreed during their Pyongyang summit in September to hold the groundbreaking ceremony before the end of this year for the rail and road connections.

The ceremony would be attended by about 100 people from each of the two Koreas. From the South Korean side, the unification and transport ministers would reportedly participate in the ceremony, but the exact list of the participants have yet to be determined.

Following the ceremony, South Korea planned to make other preparations with the DPRK for the connection project, such as in-depth inspections and designs. The two Koreas conducted an 18-day joint inspection on railways along the western and eastern DPRK earlier this month.

(Xinhua)