A recent report shows South Korea will need at least 700 billion won or some 683 million dollars to make good on its pledge to provide economic assistance to North Korea after its nuclear issue is resolved.

The report, drawn up by the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification, broke down the prospective state-level economic cooperation projects toward the North into three categories: energy, social infrastructure, and agriculture.

The report said about half of the funds should be used for energy projects, such as providing electricity to the industrial complex on the North's inter-Korean border city of Gaesong and to the Mount Geumgang resort.

Other energy projects include repairing aged thermal power plants and providing coal and fuel oil to generate power.

The report also said social infrastructure projects will cost about 200-400 billion won. They include modernizing inter-Korean railways and reinforcing unloading facilities at major ports in the North.

In addition, about 50 billion won will be needed for agricultural projects.

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said during his speech in Berlin on Friday that South Korea plans to provide comprehensive and specific assistance from the time when the communist regime begins a course of nuclear abandonment.

The minister was on a brief stopover in the German capital en route to the Swiss alpine resort city of Davos to participate in the annual World Economic Forum as a special presidential envoy.

President Roh Moo-hyun had also promised, during a June 2000 ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of the historic inter-Korean summit, that South Korea would provide active economic assistance to the North in the areas of social infrastructure and industrial production once the nuclear issue is resolved.