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Seoul Opens to North

SEOUL () -- South Korea said Tuesday it would immediately allow local firms to set up offices in North Korea, one day after President Kim Young-sam lifted a ban on business contacts between Seoul and Pyongyang in a landmark change of policy.


Vice Unification Minister Song Young-dae said the decision to start "pilot projects for economic cooperation" was aimed at ending inter-Korean hostility and promoting mutual prosperity.


South Korea banned practically all economic contact with the North in late 1992 after a brief period of d?tente collapsed due to a bitter row over North Korea's suspected nuclear arms development.

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