Seoul raises 2019 budget for inter-Korean cooperation by 15% to almost US$ 1 bil.

통일부, 2019년 예산에 남북 경협 융자 500%•산림협력 280%•이산가족 230% 증액Looking closer at South Korea's budget -- the unification ministry has released the details of its spending for next year.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.Oh Jung-hee has the details. 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.On Monday, Seoul's unification ministry released its 2019 spending plan.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.For inter-Korean economic cooperation, South Korea is raising its budget by over 60 percent.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.Grants, mostly for companies doing work on the projects, will rise by 25-percent up to 274 million U.S. dollars.And loans -- mostly for the equipment to be provided to the North -- by almost 500 percent to just over 100 million dollars. 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. Another big part of Seoul's agenda is resolving humanitarian issues.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.The money is to be used to restore the meeting facilities... and enable video reunions and video letters. "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.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.Oh Jung-hee, Arirang News."