The South Korean government has more than halved its funds for economic cooperation projects with North Korea.

The Unification Ministry on Wednesday unveiled its South-North Cooperation Fund for next year, totaling 1.51 trillion won, up 1.2 percent from this year.

Of the total, the funds for inter-Korean economic cooperation has been reduced significantly from 610.1 billion won this year to 300.6 billion won next year.

The cooperation funds do not reflect the costs for the implementation of an inter-Korean agreement on the second-phase plan to expand the Gaeseong Industrial Complex.

However, the ministry said that under a separate plan to continue humanitarian aid to the impoverished North, it has set aside 352 billion won for rice assistance, and 291.7 billion won for fertilizer assistance.