A top Unification Ministry official says the ongoing inter-Korean project to build an industrial complex in Gaesong, North Korea, will be regarded as a separate issue from Pyongyang's nuclear standoff.

The South Korean chief of the Gaesong project support team, Jo Myung-gyun, made the comments at a luncheon attended by the heads of companies that are now operating factories at the trial complex in Gaesong.

Jo said the North's nuclear issue first emerged in the 1990s and there is no need to overreact to every single move made by the communist state. His remarks hinted at proceeding with the Gaesong project regardless of changes in the nuclear situation.

He also drew a line between the Gaesong project and the controversial issue of providing the North with fertilizer aid.