* The provincial office will carry out programs for exchanges with North Korea, developing them from provision of humanitarian aids (for building a trust in each other) to joint efforts for cooperation and cultural exchanges (for restoration of homogeneity) and then to substantial economic exchanges (for mutual benefits). 
– The programs will be promoted in a patient, transparent and consistent fashion based on the principle of mutual benefits. 

* The provincial office does its best to make such programs rich in contents. The following is related to such endeavor: Enactment of the municipal ordinance for the South-North cooperation, raising relevant fund amounting to 20 billion won, and establishment of the Gyeonggi Province South-North Exchange & Cooperation Committee comprised of experts in the private sector and provincial assembly members, the South-North Exchange Promotion Ad-Hoc Committee in the Provincial Assembly and the Gyeonggi South-North Forum composed of experts in North Koran affairs. 

* The provincial office started exchanges with North Korea by signing the relevant agreement in April 2004, following the exchange of a relevant letter of intent toward the end of 2003. 
– It provided first-aid pharmaceuticals to the North in connection with the explosion at Yongcheon Station and by carrying out agreed programs in the agricultural, pharmaceutical and food areas in 2004. 

* In 2005, the provincial office promoted projects of mutual cooperation, one-notch upgraded from simple provision of aids in the past. 
– In April 2005, the provincial office signed an agreement with the Korean Nation Reconciliation Council of the North for joint promotion of the rice farming pilot project to attain the common goal of enhanced productivity in farming through technological cooperation, the first attempt of its kind in farming. 

* In connection with the rice farming pilot project, the provincial office dispatched farming experts to the North along with rice seeds and farming devices in mid-May. In early June, the work for rice transplantation was carried out at the 3-ha rice paddy in Yongsung, Pyongyang provided by the Farming Science Institute of the North. 

* As part of the effort to get the North out of the food shortage, the provincial office dispatched chemicals and sprayers to North Hwanghae Province in June. It also plans to dispatch cultivators and push carts, as the pilot project makes progress. 

* As for the project to build a noodle factory using potato starch, it was agreed that the work would be re-started in April this year. The provincial office dispatched facility engineers to the North to supervise the work in May. 

* At an event marking the June 15, 2000 summit between the leaders of the two Koreas, the South’s actors made performance of opera The Geum River based on Poet Shin Dong-yup’s epic with the same title at the Bonghwa Art Theater in Pyongyang. 
– The event had a significance as the first opera of the South to be performed in the North following the division of the two Koreas in 1948 and it is expected that a similar event can be performed in the South by the North’s actors. 

* So far a total of 93 South Koreans dispatched by the provincial office have paid visits to Mt. Geumgang, Gaesung and Pyongyang on thirteen occasions. Efforts will be made to invite North Koreans to the South. 

* The successful promotion of the joint promotion of the rice farming pilot project, the first attempt of its kind in farming since the division into the two Koreas in 1948, is said to have opened a new page in projects of mutual exchange and cooperation by local governments. 
-Such a success is attributed to meticulous preparations made by the provincial government over years and the North’s positive cooperation. 

* The provincial office plans to promote such programs rich in contents in a patient, transparent and consistent fashion based on the principle of mutual benefits in consultation with local residents and experts, focusing on those designed to get North Koreans out of the food shortage.