By Yoo Dong-ho
Staff Reporter

South and North Korea will hold a new round of economic talks in Pyongyang starting Wednesday to discuss details of ongoing and planned cross-border economic projects.

A five-member South Korean delegation led by Deputy Finance and Economy Minister Kim Gwang-lim will touch down at Sunan Airport on a chartered flight via the northwest Chinese city of Shenyang, according to the Unification Ministry.

The four-day talks, the ninth of their kind, come at a highly sensitive juncture, a day before the two Koreas begin the second round of general-level military talks for progress on easing military tension on the maritime border of the West Sea. Pyongyang’s negotiators are expected to ask for food aid from Seoul.

The North’s delegation will be headed by Choe Yong-gon, deputy minister of construction material and industry.

No formal meetings were scheduled on the first day, except for a banquet. In the following days, the two sides will hold a series of discussions before releasing a joint statement.

The two sides will discuss the reconnection of roads and railways across the border and the further development of the Kaesong industrial complex and Mt. Kumgang tourism projects.

The South Korean portions of the railway and road in the western section of the border area have already been completed, but the North has yet to finish work in both the western and eastern sections.

Also high on the agenda will be a joint project to prevent the flooding of the Imjin River, which flows southward from the North, and details on the opening of direct trade between the two Koreas and other bilateral economic cooperation to lay the groundwork for sustainable development.

The South Korean delegation will return home Saturday afternoon via Beijing.

yoodh@koreatimes.co.kr