Government Approves Support for Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund
The government will provide 688 million KRW from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to support a project that digitizes artifacts excavated from the Goryeo Dynasty palace site, Manwoldae in Kaesong.
On the 30th, the Ministry of Unification announced, "The 312th Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Promotion Council (hereafter, the Council) convened and reviewed and approved three items, including the '2020 Kaesong Manwoldae Inter-Korean Joint Excavation Digital Archive Construction Project Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund Support Plan.'
From 2007 to 2018, North and South Korea conducted eight joint excavation surveys over 12 years at Manwoldae, the main palace of the Goryeo Dynasty, producing a total of over 600,000 artifacts.
Since 2017, a 'Digital Archive' project has been underway to provide the excavated artifacts to the public, which is scheduled for completion this year.
The 688 million KRW funding will be used for data organization and processing, content production, system construction, and consulting.
The joint excavation at Manwoldae has not resumed since the eighth joint excavation survey conducted from October to December 2018, due to strained inter-Korean relations.
This is the second time the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund support has been approved this year. Earlier in January, the government decided to provide 1.655 billion KRW to support integrated management of Panmunjom tours and other activities.
Through this Council meeting, the government also approved the 2019 Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund settlement report and amendments to the fund's asset management guidelines.
The reported Inter-Korean cooperation project budget for last year totaled 75 billion KRW, including 7 billion KRW for unification policy, 3.7 billion KRW for inter-Korean social and cultural exchanges, 35.8 billion KRW for humanitarian issue resolution, and 28.5 billion KRW for inter-Korean economic cooperation.
The 312th Council meeting was conducted in writing from the 23rd to the 27th.
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