A North Korean weekly says linguists from the two Koreas will begin compilation of a joint Korean-language dictionary.

The Tongil Sinbo, or the Unification News, said the decision was reached in the 18th meeting of a committee on the inter-Korean dictionary project last month.

A North Korean Internet portal (uriminzokkiri.com) quoted the report as saying the scholars agreed to begin work on the dictionary based on materials gathered over the past four years.

The two Koreas also exchanged trial manuscripts in previous committee meetings.

The dictionary will contain some 300-thousand words and is set for completion by 2012. Publication will come a year later.

The dictionary will first include expressions jointly used by both sides, and the inclusion of differing phrases will be agree on through discussions.