Seongnam City plans to assist its city-based companies in launching businesses in North Korea beginning in the first half of next year.
 
The city said Friday its inter-Korean cooperation committee approved the plan a day ago and decided to put in place a working-level subcommittee to carry out the assistance program.  
 
Seongnam Mayor and former presidential competitor from the ruling Democratic Party, Lee Jae-myung, said the project is meaningful at a time when the inter-Korean exchange programs at the central government’s level remain sluggish due to the rigid inter-Korean relations.
 
The city said it entrusted a think tank to conduct a feasibility study of the project in May and will begin to select a North Korean partner among the economic special zones in the North when the result of the study comes out.
 
It added it will draft a mid- or long-term road map for economic cooperation between the city and the North.
 
The North is known to have five central special economic zones and 19 regional special economic zones.

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