"The focus will be on a military safety guarantee as the two sides agreed at the 20th ministerial meeting," a ministry official said, asking to remain anonymous.

In May, North Korea abruptly called off scheduled test runs of the cross-border railways under apparent pressure from its hard-line military. The cancellation led to the mothballing of an economic accord under which South Korea was supposed to provide raw materials in exchange for the North’s minerals. North Korea’s subsequent missile and nuclear weapons tests further clouded hopes of implementing the accord.

The tracks, made up of one line cutting across the western section of the border and another crossing the eastern side, have been completed and were set to undergo test runs. A set of parallel roads have been in use since 2005 for South Koreans traveling to the North.

Ko Kung-bin, chief of the South-North Korea economic cooperation bureau, leads the two-member South Korean delegation to the talks, while Pang Kang-su, chief of the North’s national economic cooperation committee, is to head his country’s four-member delegation, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, South Korea’s point man on North Korea, was optimistic that the two sides will agree on a guarantee for the safe operation of the trains.

"During the ministerial talks, North Korea first proposed working-level dialogue, so we think that the North has the will (for a safety guarantee)," Lee said in a meeting with reporters on Tuesday.

(Yonhap, March 14, 2007)