The government is aiming to wrap up within the year consultations with North Korea on fees South Korean companies in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex must pay for the use of land.
 
The Unification Ministry said in a news briefing on Monday that the South’s Inter-Korean Cooperation District Development and Planning Directorate and the North’s Central Guidance Bureau for Special Zone Development have been discussing the matter since November of last year.
 
The ministry's statement comes as the two sides are at wide odds over setting the standard.
 
The North wants to impose fees on a plot of three-point-three million square meters in the joint venture.
 
The South, on its part, has called for the imposition of land use fees on 920-thousand square meters of land which South Korean companies actually use. 
 
The firms in the industrial park are set to pay land use fees starting this year.