hankyoreh

The government and ruling Uri Party agreed in principle on Tuesday to set aside funds for 2007 that match this year’s amount earmarked for economic cooperation with North Korea.

Party policy chief Kang Bong-kyun, vice unification minister Shin Un-sang, and other key policymakers were in attendance at the meeting.

Money budgeted for work with North Korea next year will total W1.8364 trillion won (US$1.96 billion). While the figure is actually 25.9 percent less than this year’s number, the "reduction" comes from the cancellation of the light-water reactor project with the multi-national Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO). Out of the total money budgeted, money to be used in actual inter-Korean cooperation will only decrease by 3.5 percent from 2006 figures.

The government and ruling party intend to ask the National Assembly for this similar amount in next year’s budget because they believe cooperation is the basis of the Roh Moo-hyun administration’s policy of pursuing "peace and prosperity" with the North.

A government official said that specific issues of inter-Korean economic cooperation such as the Gaeseong (Kaesong) Industrial Park and Mount Geumgang (Kumgang) tourism project - both of which have come under fire from U.S. officials seeking sanctions against Pyongyang - were not discussed.