Aboard was a team of rail experts from the South that will be inspecting ways for the North to modernize its rail network in hopes that someday both countries will connect, making travel and trade easier across the border.

The weekslong inspections represent one of the most significant goodwill gestures between the Koreas in past months as they push ahead with engagement.

The plan to modernize North Korea's outdated railways and roads came from the historic meeting between the two country's leaders in April, in which North Korea's Kim Jong-un asked for help with updating the country's "embarrassing" railway network.