South Korea said Wednesday it will provide North Korea with US$620,000 in aid through the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

In 2006, the unification ministry, which is in charge of Seoul's ties with Pyongyang, signed a deal with the Bangkok-based agency to cooperate in a "technology assistance" project worth a total of $4.17 million.

The UNESCAP has been working to help North Korean officials learn skills in technology-related sectors such as the environment, energy, water resource management, and transportation.

The government plans to use the inter-Korean cooperation fund for the aid, according to the ministry's spokesman Lim Byeong-cheol.

"The UNESCAP plans to carry out its technology aid program in various fields in the first half of next year," he said.

(Yonhap)