North Korea has called off a planned joint field survey of cross-border roads for a modernization project, a unification ministry official said Friday.

The North informed the South late Thursday that it wants to postpone the survey, scheduled to start from Friday, but didn't provide reasons, according to the official.

The inspection was supposed to be carried out from Friday until next Friday on the North Korean section of the road running from the border town of Kaesong to Pyongyang.

The survey was in line with the agreement reached by the two Koreas in June to work together in modernizing and eventually connecting roads across their western and eastern borders.

Under the agreement, they promised to work together in examining the conditions of those roads from Friday to Aug. 30. (Yonhap)