South Korea’s Ministry of Unification will suspend initial plans to relieve South Koreans of their current legal obligation to report any unintentional encounters with North Korean citizens. However, a new draft amendment to a major inter-Korean exchange law — published on Thursday — will still give local governments and companies more power to collaborate with the DPRK.

In May, the ministry disclosed its first draft of an amendment to the 30-year-old Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act, which was meant to remove bureaucratic logistical procedures that bogged down inter-Korean exchanges.

The May 2020 draft amendment had vowed to get rid