S. Korea pushes to create independent unification account

South Korea will create an exclusive unification account as part of its efforts to prepare for a future merger with North Korea, Seoul's point man on Pyongyang said Wednesday. The government plans to set up the unification account in an inter-Korean cooperation fund that is currently worth about 1 trillion won (US$869 million).  The fund already has a separate account earmarked for inter-Korean projects, according to the Unification Ministry in Seoul, which handles North Korean affairs. Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik made the announcement during a meeting with South Korean reporters in Beijing. The development underscored Seoul's longstanding commitment to unifying with North Korea. The envisioned account, which needs parliamentary endorsement, is part of South Korea's efforts to help cushion the cost of re-unification with one of the poorest countries in the world. Yu arrived in Beijing on Monday on a trip aimed at enhancing Chinese understanding of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and bolstering ties with the North's key ally and the world's No. 2 economy. Yu met with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and State Councilor Dai Bingguo on Tuesday. He was to meet with former state councilor Tang Jiaxuan before returning home later in the day. Yu also said the government does not have an immediate plan to levy a tax on citizens to help finance the potential unification, though he left open the possibility of collecting a tax. South Korea has been working on details of a so-called unification tax since last year when President Lee Myung-bak floated the idea of using taxpayer money to help finance unification.  A state-run think tank has estimated the initial costs for the integration of the two Koreas could range from 55 trillion won (US$47 billion) to 249 trillion won ($216 billion).  The estimate, which is projected to cover the first year of integration, was based on the assumption that the two neighbors could be unified two decades from now, according to the Korea Institute for National Unification.