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The 12th meeting of the inter-Korean Committee for the Promotion of Economic Cooperation ended Tuesday in Jeju with an agreement whereby the South will provide US$80 million worth of materials to manufacture shoes, soap and garments to the North within this year.
The agreement will take effect only ¡°when the necessary conditions are met,¡± but Seoul was unable to make it one of those conditions in the accord that the two Koreas complete the repeatedly cancelled test runs of cross-border trains. Instead, the head of the South Korean delegation Bahk Byong-won made a verbal statement saying the supplies would come when the test run goes ahead once the North Korean military guarantees safe passage.
The railways were reconnected under a ministerial agreement between the two Koreas, but the North is using the test run as a bargaining chip with its repeated cancellations. Tuesday¡¯s accord states unequivocally that the South ¡°will provide materials for light industries in the North from August this year¡± rather than that they are linked to the test run. A high-ranking Unification Ministry official, however, insisted, "If the test run is not conducted by August, we won¡¯t provide materials.¡± In return, the North is to supply W2.4 billion (US $2.4 million) worth of zinc and magnesite, paying for 3 percent of the materials immediately and repaying the rest over 10 years after a five-year grace period at an annual interest rate of 1 percent.
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South Korean Vice Finance Minister Bahk Byong-won (right) and North Korea¡¯s vice-chairman of the national economic cooperation committee, Ju Tong-chan, announce an agreement on the last day of inter-Korean economic cooperation talks in Jeju Island on Tuesday./Yonhap
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The two Koreas also agreed on a working-level meeting in July to discuss joint forays into a third country in the field of economic and resources development. That includes a project proposed by the North to enter the logging and coal mining industry in Russia¡¯s far east. The next round of inter-Korean economic talks will be held in Pyongyang in September.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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