Friday, February 9, 2001
North and South Korean defense officials
agreed Thursday on safeguards and other
protective arrangements to build a railway
across their heavily armed border.

The two sides agreed on a 41-point plan
during talks at the border village of
Panmunjom to prevent accidental clashes
between rival troops as they work on
restoring a railway and four-lane road
inside the demilitarized zone that
separates the nations, officials said.

Military cooperation is essential to
reconnecting the rail line inside the
2.5-mile DMZ, the world's most heavily
fortified buffer zone. Work inside the
buffer zone is expected to start in March,
beginning with the clearing of thousands of
land mines inside a corridor where the
railway and a parallel four-lane highway
will be built. The railway is due to be
completed in September.