Experts to visit Kaesong for dictionary publishing

Officials from South Korea will visit the North Korean city of Kaesong to resume a project to jointly publish a "large dictionary of the Korean language," which remained suspended for four years after the May 24, 2010 sanctions imposed by the South. Attention is focusing on whether inter-Korean ties that have remained stalled will thaw beginning in the society and culture field.

A source at the South’s Unification Ministry said on Tuesday, “Three officials from the committee for joint publishing of a large dictionary of the Korean language (chairman Goh Eun) will hold talks to resume the publishing of the dictionary with North Korean experts in central Kaesong on Wednesday.” The joint dictionary publishing project, which started in 2005, was to resume in February this year, but has been delayed due to lack of response from the North. After Wednesday’s working-level meeting, the convening of joint meetings, where scholars from the South and the North will meet to publish the large diction of Korean language, is expected to accelerate the project.

The North also accepted the South’s offer to hold a South and North Korea joint meeting to discuss normalization of the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Park. The Seoul government proposed Pyongyang on June 10 to hold a meeting on June 19, but the North did not reply. Then the North offered the South on Monday to “hold a meeting on Thursday,” which Seoul has accepted. The Seoul government has also decided to allow visit by South Koreans to the North to attend a "South and North Korea joint ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the death of Reverend Manhae (Han Yong-un)," which the South’s Buddhist Chogye order and the North’s Korea Buddhist Union are jointly holding at Shingye Temple on Mount Kumkang on Sunday.