Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung on Thursday said the government is considering enacting a special law to establish a “peace and cooperation zone” in the area that is now the de-facto sea border with North Korea in the West Sea. The project, agreed at last month’s inter-Korean summit, raised eyebrows because it could be seen to expand North Korea’s territorial limit beyond the Northern Limit Line, which North Korea wants redrawn.

Lee made the remarks at a parliamentary audit of the Unification Ministry. "We will review that option in light of inter-Korean prime ministers' talks" later this month, he said. He was responding to a question from Grand National Party lawmaker Kwon Young-se.

The inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North benefits from tax breaks and loans from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund under such a special law. Lee said the prime ministers' talks “will discuss concrete and direct ways to establish peace in the West Sea." That suggests the matter will be the key item on the agenda for the prime ministers' talks in Seoul on Nov. 14-16.

United New Democratic Party lawmaker Choi Sung in the same audit questioned a clause in the inter-Korean declaration that envisages complementing the legislative and institutional frameworks of both sides. "Is there any possibility that redrawing the NLL and the abolition of the National Security Law will be formal agenda items for the inter-Korean prime ministers' talks?" Lee answered they would “not be excluded” since they were part of the inter-Korean declaration." But when asked whether redrawing the NLL was on the agenda, he said, "There is no such plan."

Meanwhile, a U.S. technical team arrived in Pyongyang to oversee the disablement of North Korea's nuclear facilities. The nine-man team led by Sung Kim, the director of the Korea Desk at the U.S. State Department, is to begin the disablement process of three nuclear facilities -- a 5-megawatt atomic reactor at Yongbyon, a reprocessing facility and a nuclear fuel rod manufacturing plant -- on Friday.

(englishnews@chosun.com )