Joint seminar: ‘Inter-Korean economic collaboration the only way forward’


Image: Daily NK

Forging more inter-Korean economic
collaboration is paramount to pave the way for unification and bridge the
ever-widening chasm between Pyongyang, Seoul, and their respective
populations, asserted a group of politicians, researchers, and professors at
today’s “Impetus for a New Unified Korea: the Economies of North and
South Korea” seminar held in Seoul.
 

Kim Byoung Yun, an economics professor at
Seoul National University, opened the event, a joint effort by The
Presidential Committee for Unification Preparation (PCUP), KDB Bank, and
Maekyung Media Group. Kim proposed that South Korea grant Pyongyang
navigational rights within the Jeju Straits and move to broker aerial rights for itself in
territory above the 38th parallel. Freely crossing the airspace and waters of
the Korean Peninsula, he said, would save both Koreas hundreds of millions of
dollars worth of fuel and the equivalent in time.
 

“Another pivotal thing we must work on is
encouraging North Korea to join international financial organizations (IFO),”
Kim added. North Korea is currently not an IFO member, eliminating any
possibility for the impoverished state to receive wholesale financial aid–a
vital component for reunification.
 

Procuring funds from the AIIB (Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank), on the other hand, would prove difficult for either of the Koreas , given that unification-wary China is at its
helm. Instead, Kim suggested striving to establish the Northeast Asia
Development Bank as a solution.

Ha Hyun Chul, head of Unification Project
department at KDB bank, called on South Korea to expand its economic ties with
the North, citing data from the Ministry of Unification, which revealed that
trade between the two Koreas peaked at $2.34 billion in 2014. However, 99% of these
statistics reflected trade through Kaesong Industrial Complex (a
joint economic venture between the two Koreas).  “We clearly need to
increase trade with North Korea outside of Kaesong as well,” Ha pointed out.
 

Expanding on this point was Won Hae Young,
a member of the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, who noted, “In order to
change the unchanging North Korea, we need to take a step and change first.” As
a first step, Won proposed the abrogation of the May 24th Measures, a group of
sanctions on North Korea, including the ban on all manner of trade between the
two Koreas save those within Kaesong Industrial Complex.
 

Recommencing Mt. Geumgang tourism,
shuttered since 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot by North Korean soldiers,
would also crack wide open the potential for improved relations, Won said,
lamenting the number of years it has lay dormant.