South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) ended a two-day working-level talks on Thursday but failed to reach consensus on the test run of inter-Korean railways, the South Korean Unification Ministry said.

During the inter-Korean meeting on economic cooperation held in DPRK's border city of Kaesong, the two sides discussed issues including the inter-Korean railways's test runs but failed to reach an agreement, said Yang Chang-seok, spokesman for the Unification Ministry.

"There were differences on when to start the joint cooperation project with the light industry and natural underground resources, but they agreed to continue their dialogue in the near future," Yang said.

South Korea insisted during the meeting that the delivery of South Korea's light industry goods, such as clothing, shoes and raw material of soaps, should be conducted after the test runs, while Pyongyang wanted to simultaneously handle the two issues, South Korean officials told local media after the meeting.

Under an agreement adopted by the two sides last June, South Korea promised to provide an 80 million-U.S. dollar worth of light industrial goods to DPRK in exchange for DPRK's minerals and the rights to develop DPRK's natural resources. The agreement had not been implemented due to the setback of inter-Korea relations after DPRK's missile test in last July and the nuclear test in October.

Seoul and Pyongyang had planned test runs of two inter-Korean railways on May 25 last year. However, DPRK decided to cancel the test runs on May 24 last year without giving specific reasons. The railway transportation between South Korea and DPRK has been cut off since the Korean War erupted in the 1950s.

Source: Xinhua