The divided Koreas will hold high-level talks on Monday to discuss the implementation of the summit agreement their leaders reached last month in Pyongyang, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said Sunday.

South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon will lead a five-member delegation assembled for the talks scheduled to take place on the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjom, according to the ministry.

Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung, Vice Land and Transport Minister Kim Jeong-ryeol, Vice Sports Minister Roh Tae-gang will join Cho, as well as director-general Ahn Moon-hyun from the Prime Minister’s Office, the ministry said. 

Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, will head the North Korean delegation. The delegation includes Vice Railroad Minister Kim Yun-hyok, Vice Minister for Land and Environment Protection Pak Ho-yong and Vice Sports Minister Won Kil-u, as well as vice chairman of the National Economic Cooperation Committee Pak Myong-chol.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reached an agreement in September to bolster cross-border cooperation and exchanges on various fronts and expressed the common view that the Korean Peninsula needs to be transformed into a nuclear-free zone. The agreement also calls for breaking ground before the end of the year toward reconnecting two sets of cross-border roads and railways.

The establishment of a joint military committee -- the subject of a clause in the Pyongyang agreement -- and the resumption of an on-site survey with the aim of modernizing cross-border roads and railways are expected to be key agenda items at the meeting.

Progress on the railway project was stalled following the United Nations Command’s decision in August to decline South Korea’s request to test-run a train on a cross-border railway, saying it needed “more fidelity on the details” of the submitted proposal. The move had fueled speculation that the US was reluctant to support inter-Korean projects amid lack of progress in Washington-Pyongyang denuclearization talks.

But with the US focusing on keeping its pressure campaign against the North alive, skeptics are doubtful that high-level talks will remove the existing stumbling blocks in the railway project. Concerns about possible sanctions violations surround the project with its perceived role of laying the groundwork for other inter-Korean economic projects.

US President Donald Trump recently reiterated that the sanctions will remain in place until North Korea denuclearizes, after South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha backtracked on earlier remarks indicating that Seoul was considering lifting sanctions imposed against the North over the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship.

At the high-level meeting, the two Koreas are likely to hammer out the details of Red Cross talks, including video meetings and exchanges of messages between families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

In addition, representatives are expected to discuss the details of the planned performance in Seoul this month of a Pyongyang arts troupe, as well as South Korea’s push to field a united team at the 2020 Olympics. At the September summit, Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to file a bid to jointly host the 2032 Olympics.

Monday’s meeting is set to be the fifth high-level talks between the two Koreas this year, amid a mood of inter-Korean detente.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)