UN exempts inter-Korean groundbreaking ceremony from NK sanctions

(VOVWORLD) - The United Nations Security Council has agreed to exempt this week’s groundbreaking ceremony for inter-Korean road and railway projects from sanctions, reports said Tuesday, in another sign of the US softening its stance toward North Korea. 

 Negotiations with the UNSC North Korean sanctions committee on the groundbreaking ceremony were completed Tuesday in New York, said Yonhap News Agency. Earlier this month, the North and South Korea agreed to hold a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, as part of a joint effort to implement an agreement reached by their respective leaders at their third summit, held in Pyongyang in September. The ceremony is set to be held at Panmun Station in the North’s border town of Kaesong, with ranking officials from both North and South Korea and several foreign officials attending. 

In related news, US President Donald Trump said in a statement that progress has been made with regards to North Korea, and he is looking forward to his next bilateral meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Trump has been considering a second summit with Kim to speed up North Korea’s stalling denuclearization. Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton said the summit could take place in January or February. On June 12, Trump and Kim met in Singapore, where they committed to establish new era of US-North Korea relations. In the joint declaration, Kim pledged to work towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, while in return, Trump promised to provide certain security guarantees to North Korea.

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