North and South Korea on Tuesday reached an agreement that includes Seoul's support for impoverished North Korea's light industries.
The nine-point agreement came at the end of four days of talks on the southern South Korean island of Jeju. North and South Korean delegates to the economic talks held a joint press conference shortly after 6:30 a.m. to announce the agreement.
The agreement said the sides have adopted an accord on the early implementation of a former accord that included Seoul's assistance for Pyongyang's shoe, garment and soap industries, as well as its mining industries, but said it would "become effective only when necessary conditions improve."
The agreement, according to Kim Chun-sig, a spokesman for the South Korean delegation, requires South Korea to provide "US$80 million worth of industrial materials" to the North starting from August, but only if the North revives the canceled cross-border railway tests.
The assistance would be made as a commercial loan to be repaid starting from this year, Kim said in a press briefing.
According to the accord on the "South-North Cooperation in Light Industry and Natural Resource Development," Pyongyang is to repay Seoul's assistance with "natural resources, the rights to develop and dispose its minerals and others with economic value."
The new agreement came after negotiations that continued overnight as the sides previously remained largely split over how to revive the canceled tests of the railways.
The agreement failed to directly link the railway tests to Seoul's support for the North, but South Korean officials said an "improvement in conditions" includes opening the inter-Korean border, at least temporarily, to test the railways.
"In other words, the accord on the South-North cooperation in light industry and natural resource development will not become effective unless a military agreement is reached and the railroad tests are conducted," the South Korean delegation spokesman said.
The clause, according to officials, tasks the North Korean side with the tough work of persuading its military, which has long opposed opening the inter-Korean rail links.
"The country has secured leverage for the railway tests by stating that it would sign and exchange an agreement on (its support for the North's) light industries and natural resources development, but that it would become effective after the railway tests take place," the Unification Ministry said in a statement.
The Koreas were to test the cross-border railways on May 25 for the first time in more than half a century, but the North called off the historic event the day before it was to take place, citing the lack of an agreement between the countries' militaries to guarantee the safety of people crossing the heavily fortified border by train.
Pyongyang blamed Seoul for the lack of a military agreement despite Seoul's repeated proposals for military talks following a failed round in May.
The sides also agreed to jointly develop the Han River's western estuary to extract sand "as soon as the countries take military measures to guarantee safety and ease tension around the border area."
The joint development of the mouth of the Han River was proposed by Seoul's point man on North Korean affairs, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, during the latest round of inter-Korean ministerial talks in the North Korean capital Pyongyang in April.
The project is expected to provide enough sand for both sides for the next decade, South Korean officials had said earlier.
North and South Korean officials are to make contacts in the North's border town of Kaesong on June 26-27 to discuss establishing an early warning system for the periodic flooding of shared areas near the borderline Imjin River, the agreement said.
The sides are also to hold a new round of talks between working-level officials on June 20-21 to discuss ways to speed up the development of a joint industrial complex in Kaesong, where 13 South Korean companies already employ about 6,500 North Korean workers to produce goods, it said.
The Koreas have remain divided since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
b>Jeju Island, South Korea, June 6 (Yonhap News)
Two Koreas reach agreement on new economic cooperation |
