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SEOUL: North and South Korean officials on Thursday discussed joint projects to revive the communist state's crumbling industry and infrastructure, as reconciliation talks went into a second day.
The prime ministers of the two nations met for the first time in 15 years to work out ways to implement a sweeping peace and prosperity pact signed by their leaders last month.
Delegates held working-group meetings on joint shipbuilding projects, the upgrading of roads and railways in the North, and the public health and medical sectors, Seoul's unification ministry said.
After what was described as a friendly first day of talks, the North's Prime Minister Kim Yong-Il and his counterpart Han Duck-Soo met for a stroll in the grounds of the meeting's venue, a luxury hotel overlooking the Han river.
In the afternoon, they were scheduled to visit the National Museum in Seoul before a joint dinner.
At only the second-ever inter-Korean summit, President Roh Moo-Hyun and the North's leader Kim Jong-Il last month agreed both on joint economic mega-projects costing billions of dollars, and on measures to ease tensions.
The two countries have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict but tensions have been easing, especially since the North began disabling its plutonium-producing nuclear plants.
The economic projects were the focus of the prime ministerial talks ending Friday, with security issues to be tackled by defence ministers later this month.
A Hyundai Research Institute study had estimated the cost to South Korea of all the summit projects at US$11 billion. The Seoul government, which has less than four months left in office, said private businesses would pick up most of the investment tab.
South Korea sees joint developments such as the flagship Kaesong industrial estate as a way to narrow the huge wealth gap in preparation for any eventual reunification.
One of its priorities this week will be setting up a joint fishing area around the disputed Yellow Sea border - a prelude to establishing a "peace zone" to avoid a repetition of bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002.
This would include developing a special economic zone around the North's southwestern port of Haeju.
Seoul also wants Pyongyang to ease customs inspections and communications restrictions at Kaesong, where some 20,000 North Koreans earning about US$60 a month work for South Korean firms.
High on the North's agenda is South Korean help to upgrade its railways and roads as well as the joint development of shipyards.
- AFP
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