Plans to open the Republic of Korea (ROK)'s first business liaison office in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have been delayed by talks over Pyongyang's nuclear aims, but the unprecedented move is still on track, a ROK official said Monday.

The official from the ROK's state-run Korea Resources Corporation said the office would likely open by the end of 2005, seven months behind schedule.

Opening the office, aimed at jointly exploiting the North's mineral reserves, would mean stationing officials from the South in what is still technically an enemy state.

"One of our senior officials entered North Korea (DPRK) in early September, and discussions with the North Korean government over the liaison office has been completed," said the official, who declined to be identified.

The official said the DPRK's declaration in February that it possessed nuclear weapons had delayed the process. Korea Resources late last year unveiled the plan to open the liaison office in Pyongyang.

Korea Resources works in domestic mining operations and invests overseas to secure mineral resources for the export-driven ROK economy, Asia's fourth largest.

The ROK has few raw material resources of its own, while the DPRK has huge mineral reserves, much of it as yet untapped due to a lack of cash and technology.

Separately, the DPRK and ROK have signed several deals in recent months on economic co-operation and business development as ties have warmed between the neighbours. The deals had been in discussions for several years.

One of the deals came in July when the two Koreas agreed the DPRK would guarantee investments by ROK companies to develop mineral resources such as coal and zinc.

The two Koreas have also recently agreed on ways to improve rail links and on military confidence-building measures.

The two Koreas are technically still at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.

Source: China Daily