During the last 3 days from March 15th through 18th, the delegation, Deputy Governor Kim, Seong-sik doyen for administrative affairs of Gyeonggi-do had visited Pyeong-yang and had a conference with the delegation of North Korea (doyen and vice-president Jeong, Deok-gi of Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation) and concluded a written agreement of’The Project of the Modernization of North Korean agricultural villages in Cooperation between North and South Korea’.

Both parties agreed to enforce this project at Danggok-ri, Gangnam-gun, Pyeongyang, for 3 years starting this year (2006~2008). By this agreement, rice farming cooperation project, agricultural infrastructure development project and life environment improvement project will be promoted all at once.

::The geographical position of Danggok-ri is about 20 Km south of Pyeongyang, near the express highway toward Gaeseong (the administration system of North Korea consists 3 zones (si (city), gun (district) and ri) and “ri” in North Korea is big as “myeon” in South Korea 

<Rice Farming Cooperation Project>
– Decided to promote this project with Danggok-ri residents by increasing from 3 ha from last year to 100 ha (300,000 pyeong), sow rice seeds from both sides and raise the rice plants with the method of rice cultivation of Gyeonggi-do.
– Gyeonggi-do will offer farm machines, materials and farming technology and
send engineers and North Korea agreed to offer farmland and labor force and
take charge the cultivating management.

<Agricultural Infrastructure Development Project>
– Through the development of the agricultural infrastructure, farm road pavement, install waterways, develop culver for farming, construct buildings and the rice-polishing mill, installing about 3,600 pyeong vinyl houses, and cultivating buildings for young rice plants for permanently increasing agricultural productivity.
– Gyeonggi-do will offer related facilities, equipments and aids, and send engineers and North Korea offer labor force and materials, the aggregate

<Life Environment Improvement Project>
– Paving roads connecting villages and Ri zones, repairing and building day nurseries and hospitals.
– Gyeonggi-do will offer related equipments and aids and send engineers and North Korea will offer labor force and materials required for construction

This project was materialized based on the relationship between Gyeonggi-do and North Korea after the successful model project of the rice farming that Gyeonggi-do G Son, Hak-gyu suggested in his new year speech last year. As a result, this created an opportunity to expand more projects such as the development of an agricultural infrastructure and the life environment this year.

This agreement is a part of the peace managing policy that Governor Son Hak-gyu presented at the World Peace Festival, and is appraised to open a new chapter of the Inter-Korean cooperation project over the local autonomous entity.

Through this visit, both parties decided to promote various projects with close cooperation by taking the importance of this project into consideration on the initial schedule, none the less because North-South relations are politically deadlock by Korea and America Cooperate Military Drill.

By that, Gyeonggi-do made plans to send engineers to North Korea to start installing vinyl houses cultivating young rice plants for about 2 weeks starting on March 22nd. Shipment of agricultural materials and equipments such as rice plants, fertilizers and agrichemicals to North Korea will take place at the end of March and projects will take full swing in mid-April.