ROK to continue efforts for dialogue with DPRK

SEOUL - President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Park Geun-hye said Tuesday that the government will continue efforts for dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), vowing to actively prepare for future reunification of the two Koreas from 2015.

"The government will continue efforts for dialogue in terms of inter-Korean relations, with a sincere and broadly open mind and in accordance with principle," Park said during a Cabinet meeting.

Park pledged to actively build preparations for future reunification of the two Koreas from next year, saying the ROK will prepare to provide real assistance for people in the DPRK.

Park has advocated the unified Korea as a "bonanza" for the Korean Peninsula and the region as well as the world.

To prepare for the reunification era, the ROK said Monday in its 2015 economic policy direction that it would push for aggressive exchange and cooperation with the DPRK if inter-Korean relations improve.

As part of those efforts, the ROK would push to hold a general meeting of the Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI) next year in Seoul to help the DPRK develop utilities and infrastructure.

Created in 1995, the GTI is an inter-governmental cooperation mechanism in northeast Asia supported by the UN Development Program (UNDP). Its four members are the ROK, China, Russia and Mongolia. The DPRK took its name off the GTI in November 2009.

the ROK plans to go ahead with the tripartite transport project, which uses the DPRK-Russia railway and port. The test-run was conducted earlier this month by transporting about 40,000 tons of coal from Russian border city of Khasan to the DPRK's port city of Rajin via the 54-kilometer railway before moving it by sea route to Pohang, the ROK's southern port city.