South Korea's budget allocated for cooperation and exchange projects with North Korea has exceeded one trillion won for the first time in three years.
The Unification Ministry said Monday that one-point-one trillion won has been set aside for next year's Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, about 144 billion won more than this year.
The ministry's general account budget for 2019, meanwhile, declined by seven-point-seven billion won to 219-point-eight billion won.
Of the total budget for inter-Korean cooperation, some 500 billion has been earmarked to implement cross-border summit agreements, including the rail connection project, and to lay the groundwork for South-North economic cooperation.
Over 572 billion won is set aside for efforts to resolve humanitarian issues. In particular, over 39 billion won will go towards exchanges involving separated families, up from this year's 12 billion.
The inter-Korean cooperation fund was set up in 1991.