A barter exchange where South Korea trades sugar for North Korea’s liquor and food products as part of efforts to improve ties could not take place, despite Seoul’s strong push to do so, as the project involves a UN-sanctioned North Korean trading firm, lawmakers said Monday.

Earlier in the day, the parliamentary intelligence was briefed on the latest finding by the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs. Vice Unification Minister Suh Ho held the briefing himself.

“The project in question could be dropped, completely,” Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the main opposition United Future Party was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as telling reporters after the meeting. “It seems the Unification Ministry hasn’t run a thorough background check on the North Korean firm.”

The ministry had called the barter deal a way to resume stalled inter-Korean exchanges because it could bypass UN sanctions that ban bulk cash transfers. The deal, signed in June, calls for Pyongyang to swap 250 products including liquor, its signature ginseng and other food supplements for 167 tons of sugar from Seoul.

The ministry, however, stressed that the deal was not completely scrapped and that it will seek ways to make the Seoul-Pyongyang exchange happen, with other trading firms unaffected by sanctions.

“We never said ‘scrap’ (at the parliamentary briefing),” the ministry said, adding the firm in question was only one of many North Korean firms in the deal. “We’re still looking into the arrangement.”

By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)