통일부, 2019년 예산에 남북 경협 융자 500%•산림협력 280%•이산가족 230% 증액<br /><br />Looking closer at South Korea's budget -- the unification ministry has released the details of its spending for next year.<br />To keep improving ties with North Korea, and its budget for inter-Korean cooperation has been raised by 15-percent,... which puts it over the 1-trillion Korean won mark for the first time since 2016.<br />Oh Jung-hee has the details. <br />To maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula and to further improve ties with North Korea,... the South Korean government is upping its budget next year for inter-Korean cooperation.<br />On Monday, Seoul's unification ministry released its 2019 spending plan.<br />It calls for spending 1-point-1 trillion won,... or almost 1-billion U.S. dollars on the ministry's Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund -- a rise of 15 percent from this year.<br />For inter-Korean economic cooperation, South Korea is raising its budget by over 60 percent.<br />The money will be used to connect and upgrade railways and roads between the two Koreas... as well as to lay the foundation for future economic cooperation.<br />Grants, mostly for companies doing work on the projects, will rise by 25-percent up to 274 million U.S. dollars.<br />And loans -- mostly for the equipment to be provided to the North -- by almost 500 percent to just over 100 million dollars. <br />With grand goals ahead for inter-Korean forestry cooperation, spending in that field will increase by 280 percent,... mainly for disease and pest control work and modernizing the North's tree nurseries. <br />Another big part of Seoul's agenda is resolving humanitarian issues.<br />Seoul is upping its budget to support families separated by the Korean War by 230-percent,... so that they can communicate and interact with each other more often and more freely.<br />The money is to be used to restore the meeting facilities... and enable video reunions and video letters. <br />"With the budgets for civic exchanges and medical cooperation set to rise as well,... Seoul says it also plans to increase its budget for inter-Korean talks -- by over 100-percent.<br />That increase, just by the numbers alone, shows... that South Korea aims to communicate with the North more regularly and systematically... to keep their ties stable, and more importantly, sustainable.<br />Oh Jung-hee, Arirang News."
