SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- Communist North Korea and 
capitalist South Korea are likely to have formed at least 
an economic union by 2020, the South's unification minister 
told Reuters on Wednesday.

Chung Dong-young also said North Korea would be ready to 
accept Seoul's offer of free electricity as a stop-gap 
until light-water atomic reactors were built after a deal 
was reached in six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear 
weapons programs.

South Korea does not aim for rapid unification, fearful of 
the German-style cost of unexpectedly welding together 
different systems. South Korean ministers are generally 
cautious about pinning dates on any form of closer ties.

But when asked about a mooted joint North-South bid for the 
2020 Summer Olympics, Chung said that was a good idea and 
there was likely to be much progress between now and then.

"The vision of the Republic of Korea -- my personal vision 
as a politician -- is that by 2020 we will be a welfare 
state, and also at the same time, the South and the North 
will be able to communicate freely, that we will at least 
have developed into a joint economic union," he said.

Chung, who covered the November 1989 fall of the Berlin 
Wall as a television journalist, did not elaborate on what 
form an economic union between Asia's fourth-largest 
economy and one of the world's poorest countries might take.

But he said the North appeared headed for an economic 
opening similar to China and Vietnam, which both retain 
communist rule. The North has already begun some piecemeal 
market reforms.

Noting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum 
was meeting in the southern city of Busan, Chung said 
leaders were likely to declare support for the six-party 
talks, which involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia 
and the United States.

"The significance of this, both historically and 
substantively, is that the leaders and the people of all 
the countries in the region, and not just the countries 
taking part in the six-party talks, will support peace and 
stability on the Korean peninsula and will be doing so 
right here," he said.