Joong Ang Daily
Lee Young-jong
5/15/2007
With a one-time test run of an inter-Korean railroad set this week, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said yesterday it will create an organization designed solely to provide $80 million worth of raw materials to North Korea.
The South promised to provide the materials, for light industry, in return for security assurances over the inter-Korean train line.
South Korea hopes the line will be permanent, but North Korea has only agreed to one test run.
The new organization will be jointly operated by related South Korean government agencies, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Nam-sik said in a briefing yesterday. The agency will also represent South Korea in talks with the North over the joint development of a mine in North Korea.
The government is scheduled today to hold a meeting hosted by Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung to endorse a 2 billion won yearly budget for the organization, Kim said. The money will come from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund.
“The fund the government will provide to the organization is a kind of commission for doing state affairs instead of the government,” Kim said.
