Humanitarian workers from World Vision visited North Korea on Wednesday to discuss how to assist the country’s agricultural projects.
 
Four employees at the Christian aid group, including the head of the North Korea business unit, visited the border city of Gaeseong. The group met with officials of the National Economic Cooperation Federation, the North’s dialogue channel for inter-Korean economic cooperation.
 
The two sides are expected to discuss how to resume inter-Korean agricultural projects suspended since 2010, following sanctions imposed on the North after the sinking of the Cheonan naval vessel. Until then, World Vision had conducted agricultural projects in seven North Korean regions since 1998.
 
The visit was also the first time a civilian organization has been allowed to travel to the North for agricultural projects since the sanctions were imposed. 
 
The Ministry of Unification recently gave the green light to a series of civilian-initiated projects suspended under the 2010 sanctions, raising hope that inter-Korean contacts will increase further. The projects include a forest preservation project in the North and a joint project of publishing a Korean language dictionary.