A group of South Korean scholars has returned from a trip to North Korea after discussions with their counterparts there for an inter-Korean dictionary project.
 
The 20-member group led by Korea University Professor Hong Jong-seon visited Pyongyang on October 30 and returned home on Saturday after attending meetings with the North’s Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation.
 
Han Young-un, a member of the dictionary compilation committee, said that inter-Korean scholars have agreed on the selection of 18-thousand words through weeklong discussions. He added that the two sides will meet four times a year to discuss 80-thousand words a year.

The dictionary project is a part of the inter-Korean efforts to boost non-political exchanges and to narrow widening language gaps across the border.
 
The project got off the ground in February 2006 after an inter-Korean committee was launched, but halted in 2009 after South Korea imposed sanctions on inter-Korean exchanges, following the North's sinking of a South Korean naval ship. The two Koreas resumed the project in July and plan to compile the dictionary by 2019.