Next year's inter-Korean cooperation fund is expected to shrink slightly.

The Unification Ministry submitted to the National Assembly on Thursday a proposed budget of one-point-one-eight trillion won for the fund, down three-point-five percent from this year's one-point-two trillion.

The ministry says the money will cover some 30 projects including seven new ones. Among the new projects is construction of an apartment-style factory in the Gaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea.

One-hundred-90-billion won will enable 500-thousand tons of rice aid to the North and a hundred-40 billion is set for as much as 350-thousand tons of fertilizer aid.

Four-billion won will go to modernizing the North's Nampo Port and three-billion to subsidize travel to Mount Geumgang by South Korean students.