By Yoo Dong-ho
Staff Reporter

South Korea will step up efforts to promote inter-Korean cooperation and exchange projects under the policy of engaging North Korea, President Roh Moo-hyun said Saturday.

``The government will maintain its policy of inter-Korean reconciliation to expedite various projects like the linkage of cross-border railways and roads, and civilian exchanges,’’ Roh said while meeting with security-related senior officials.

Roh also vowed the government will make further efforts to open the demonstration industrial complex for South Korean firms in North Korea’s border town of Kaesong by the end of the year as scheduled.

``We need to make every effort to ensure that the complex can begin operating by the year’s end as scheduled as it is an important project not only for inter-Korean reconciliation and co-prosperity but also for the opening of a peaceful and prosperous era in Northeast Asia,’’ Roh told a meeting of the National Security Council at Chong Wa Dae.

Roh’s remark came after the two Koreas Wednesday celebrated the completion of construction on the pilot industrial complex in Kaesong, a city only a few kilometers north of the heavily fortified demilitarized zone, in a concrete step toward much-touted economic cooperation.

The complex, which will later be linked with a cross-border railway being built by the two Koreas, is to be used by hundreds of South Korean garment manufacturers and other labor-intensive companies that want to relocate facilities there to utilize cheap but skilled North Korean labor.

The industrial park has been the most notable project symbolizing inter-Korean reconciliation, which was set in motion by the first-ever summit of the leaders of the two countries in 2000.

In June, South and North Korea struck an agreement to open two sets of cross-border railways in the eastern and western sections of the heavily fortified border on a trial basis starting in October.

The project is expected to shift into full gear starting from November, when South Korean companies are to begin transferring production to the complex, which will have some 5,000 North Korean workers.

The state-run Korea Land Corp. plans to complete construction of the main 2.31-million-square-meter complex by the end of 2006, and will start to offer areas to potential investors in the second half of this year.

yoodh@koreatimes.co.kr