Unionized railway workers decided Monday to end their strike, after reaching a deal with the Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) over working conditions, the union and the company said.

After marathon talks, the two sides struck an agreement to withdraw their no-time-limit work stoppage that started Wednesday. Striking workers will start to return to work at 9 a.m.

It is expected to take one or two days to put bullet train operations and other services nationwide on the normal track, they said.

Last week, unionized workers launched the first indefinite strike since a 74-day collective action from September to December in 2016.

They demanded KORAIL hire an additional 4,000 railway workers to adopt a four-team, two-shift system next year and called for a 4 percent pay rise and better working conditions.

Unionized workers also called for an integration with the operator of bullet SRT trains within this year.

The strike did not cause major disruptions of railway services, but passengers suffered longer waiting times due to the reduced operation of trains.

In particular, the walkout unnerved people preparing for college entrance in 2020 as they faced troubles in using trains to take essay tests or be interviewed at universities.

The union group also appears to take into account the country's opening of a special summit with ASEAN in the southern port city of Busan later in the day.

South Korea will hold a two-day summit with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It will also be followed by the 1st Mekong-Korea Summit on Wednesday.(Yonhap)

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