ROK considers expanding inter-Korean projects

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SEOUL, Oct 13 (AP): South Korea is considering expanding cross-border projects with North Korea following major progress in an international standoff over the communist country's nuclear program, an official said Monday.
On Saturday, the United States removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist, saying Pyongyang agreed to all Washington's nuclear inspection demands. The North welcomed the delisting, saying it would resume disabling its main nuclear facilities and allow international inspections there.
Meanwhile, conservative protesters took to the streets in Seoul to denounce the delisting.
Kim Ho-nyeon, a spokesman at South Korea's Unification Ministry, told reporters Monday that South Korea is considering "adjusting" various projects with its neighbor, such as its food aid to the impoverished North.
He did not elaborate but his office later explained that South Korea has long sought to expand inter-Korean economic projects and humanitarian aid to the North in tandem with progress in the nuclear issue.
"I hope the terrorism delisting will have a positive effect on improvement of inter-Korean ties," Kim said.
North Korea halted its nuclear disablement in mid-August in anger over Washington's failure to remove the regime from the terror list and began moves toward restarting its plutonium-producing facility. The US had said North Korea first had to allow verification of the declaration of its nuclear programs it submitted in June.
The weekend's developments raised hopes that the stalled nuclear talks could quickly resume and help improve ties between the US and North Korea, Cold War adversaries still technically at war.
About 70 activists called on the US to withdraw its delisting decision in a rally Monday near the American Embassy in Seoul.
Relations between the divided Koreas have worsened since a conservative, pro-US government was inaugurated in Seoul in February with a pledge to get tougher on the North. Pyongyang has cut off government-level contacts with the South in retaliation.
Inter-Korean ties deteriorated further in July after a North Korean army guard fatally shot a South Korean housewife who allegedly wandered into a restricted military area at the North's scenic Diamond Mountain resort. In response, the South suspended tours to the mountain - a prominent symbol of rapprochement efforts on the divided peninsula.