The government will send its first batch of heavy fuel oil to North Korea next week in accordance with the six-way nuclear agreement.

Vice Unification Minister Shin Eon-sang told a Thursday briefing that the first 62-hundred tons of the total 50-thousand will leave Ulsan toward North Korea's Sunbong. He added that, for now, there's no problem shipping the first batch by July 14th as agreed by the two Koreas.

Shin said the cost totaled out to some 26 billion won and that SK Energy was chosen as the supplier given its short-term production capacity.

Also, at the ongoing inter-Korean talks on light industry and mineral resources, he said the two
sides will agree on the cost issue so that the first raw materials deliveries and joint field studies could promptly begin as scheduled.

Officials from the two sides are working out related details in a meeting Thursday and Friday in the North Korean border city of Gaesong.