While North Korea is strictly controlling overland passage through the military demarcation line, inter-Korean exchanges in Pyongyang continue.

A spokesman at the Ministry of Unification said Friday that South Korean companies doing business in the North Korean capital are continuing with their projects as planned.

Regarding humanitarian aid to the impoverished North, the spokesman said that a South Korean food aid organization visited Pyongyang to help build a hospital, with other humanitarian groups scheduled to follow later this month.

The spokesman also noted that eleven representatives of a South Korean truck drivers union will leave for Pyongyang on Saturday for a five-day visit.