Republic of Korea (ROK) President Moon Jae-in said on Monday that his government will seek "realistic and practical ways" for cooperation with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) upon the second anniversary of the Panmunjom Declaration. 

Moon made the remark during a meeting with his senior aides on the day to mark the second anniversary of the Panmunjom Declaration that was signed by Moon and DPRK leader Kim Jong Un during their first summit on April 27, 2018 at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, according to the presidential Blue House.

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 "(The ROK government) will go and find the most realistic and practical way for inter-Korean cooperation. The COVID-19 crisis can be a new opportunity for inter-Korean cooperation as it is the most urgent and desperate task to cooperate in as of now," Moon said.

Moon's comment indicated Seoul's willingness to cooperate with Pyongyang in tackling the coronavirus pandemic, which he said could become a starting point to expand inter-Korean cooperation into jointly dealing with infectious disease in domestic animals, natural disasters in border areas, and climate change.

To reconnect railways across the inter-Korean border, Moon vowed to do what the ROK can do first.

Earlier in the day, a ceremony was held in the northeastern border town of Jejin to launch the construction of the ROK section of the inter-Korean railway along the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.

The single-track railway re-connection spans 110.9 km from the east coastal city of Gangneung to Jejin. It is expected to cost about 2.85 trillion won (2.3 billion U.S. dollars).

The Gangneung-Jejin railroad is the southern section of the Donghae Bukbu Line, which was built during the 1910-1945 Japanese colonization of the peninsula but was severed during the 1950-1953 Korean War. 

Moon and Kim agreed in their Panmunjom summit to modernize and re-link inter-Korean railways and roads along the eastern and western peninsula. The Donghae Bukbu Line construction project was pursued since 2000.

The first Kim-Moon summit, as well as their second summit in the following month, helped to pave the way for Kim's historic meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12, 2018. 

The Singapore summit was the first-ever meeting between a DPRK top leader and a sitting U.S. president. 

The anniversary came amid speculations about Kim's health condition. In response to a question on the issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said on Tuesday that he was not sure of the source of such speculation. Several ROK government officials also said they had not confirmed any of the information regarding the health of the DPRK leader. 

(With input from Xinhua)