SEOUL, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- South Korea is denying that North Korea has diverted cash payment from the South for its communist neighbor's nuclear weapons programs.
In a speech to European businesspeople in Seoul Friday, Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said the amount of cash the North earns from joint projects with the South is just 1.4 percent of the North's total cash earnings of $1.4 billion a year.
South Korea pays some $20 million to the North to run the two cross-border projects of the industrial park in Kaesong and the North's mountain resort of Kumgang, said Lee, Seoul's pointman on North Korea.
The North earns such money "in a transparent and legal manner," he said, vowing to expand and inter-Korean economic cooperation as a way to ensure peace and stability on the peninsula.
