Inter-Korean meeting ends with agreement on communication, transaction

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, December 20, 2003

Inter-Korean meeting ends with agreement on communication, transaction

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South Korea and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) concluded their four-day economic meeting in Pyongyang on Saturday with an agreement over inter-Korean communication, transaction and origin of products.

The meeting was convened to discuss issues to boom inter-Korean projects such as the construction of the Kaesong Industrial Complex in DPRK's near inter-Korean border city of Kaesong and DPRK's Mount Geumgang tour.

The two sides agreed to set up a fixed-line communication network directly linking the Kaesong Industrial Complex to their respective capitals, reported South Korean Yonhap News Agency from Pyongyang.

In a separate session of the talks, the two sides agreed to begin the direct settlement of transactions below 30 million US dollars on a trial basis from next April.

Although the two sides failed to work out specific procedures for the verification of the origin of products, they agreed to notify each other of documents verifying the product origins either once a week or month from next year.

However, the two delegations to the talks failed to produce an agreement guaranteeing the security of South Koreans who cross the heavily fortified inter-Korean border for either business or tourism, said Yonhap

During the four-day economic talks, South Korea demanded jurisdiction over its nationals staying at Geumgang mountain and the Kaesong complex in the DPRK if they are involved in criminal and civil cases there.

But the DPRK rejected the demand, insisting it is a matter of sovereignty, reported Yonhap.

The two sides agreed to hold more working-level talks in the coming weeks to try to resolve outstanding differences over the security issue.

Currently, an average of 940 South Koreans per day stay in the DPRK, either at the Mount Geumgang resort on the east coast or at a suspended nuclear power plant construction site in the remote northeastern coastal village of Kumho of the DPRK, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry.

In a few years, a large number of South Koreans are to be working at the Kaesong Industrial Complex being built by South Korea's Hyundai Group and South Korean state-run Korea Land Corp.

The 47-member South Korean delegation to the talks, including support personnel and reporters, is expected to return home later in the day via Beijing.

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