S. Korea to continue to support suspended inter

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho is seen on screen as he delivers a virtual message about the government's plan to support an inter-Korean dictionary project at a forum in Seoul, Nov. 7. Yonhap

South Korea's point man on North Korea said Tuesday that Seoul will continue to support a long-suspended project to compile a unified Korean-language dictionary with Pyongyang despite frosty inter-Korean ties.

"The government will continue to support the project for its stable operation," Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said in a virtual message for an academic forum in Seoul. He did not elaborate.

The two Koreas have held 25 rounds of meetings with scholars since 2005, when they launched the project to publish a common Korean-language dictionary.

The divided Koreas use the same alphabet, known as hangeul, though decades of division following the 1950-53 Korean War have led to dialectical differences, deviations in the meaning of words and spelling differences in naming countries. This phenomenon often causes trouble in communication between South and North Koreans.

The project was suspended in 2010 after North Korea's sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 South Korean sailors. North Korea has denied involvement in the sinking.

The two Koreas resumed the project in 2014 before halting it again in late 2015 amid heightened inter-Korean tensions. (Yonhap)