The South Korean administration has agreed to provide North Korea with materials and equipment to modernize two military communication lines which are used to manage passage along the Kyungui and East Sea Lines.

The Ministry of Unification revealed on Wednesday, “To eliminate inconveniences related to travel for South Korean citizens who work in North Korean territory, on the 19th we reported to the North our desire to conduct repairs to the communication facilities to the North, and they accepted our proposal yesterday. Therefore, from the 28th of this month, the South will begin providing around $1.7 million of optic cables, piping and other requirements.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Unification, Lee Jong Ju explained the process, “Each side will repair their own section and then link up with the other’s cable along the Military Demarcation Line (MDL). It is expected to take between one and two months, so all the repairs ought to be wrapped up before winter.”

North and South Korea manage every issue regarding personnel and vehicles crossing the demilitarized zone heading to and from both Kaesong and Mt. Geumgang through telephone lines which travel alongside the Kyungui and East Sea Lines.

However, these cables are worn out and tend to cause problems. The Kyungui Line cable has actually been out of use since May, 2008, which has necessitated using the East Sea Line for all communications.

North and the South agreed some time ago that the Seoul would provide the relevant equipment for the North to replace the existing copper line with fiber optic cable, but the repairs were delayed as inter-Korean relations deteriorated.

After the North’s recent conciliatory gestures such as apologizing for the “Imjin River Incident” and agreeing to take part in Red Cross talks, analysts suggest that the South wants to wrestle back the momentum in inter-Korean dialogue with this active move to improve the situation on a practical level.

However, the Unification Ministry spokesperson denied any particular motivation, saying, “There is no special backdrop. This is just to resolve inconveniences our people suffer while travelling into North Korea.”