 Image: Daily NK |
Millions of families have been separated
since the military border between the two Koreas was created in the
1950-53 Korean War and these decades have driven the two countries apart in
almost every way imaginable.
An important step in fusing this ever-widening gap can be made by South Koreans displaced by the Korean War and their
descendants, according to a group of experts at a recent conference hosted by
the Donghwa Institute in Seoul. This robust contingent could and should play a
major role in bridging the economic disparity between the two Koreas and
mending other broken ties in the process.
Kim Moo Sung, a delegate from the ruling
Saenuri Party, opened the seminar by emphasizing, in broad strokes, the significant
economic benefits that reunification would bring to the Korean Peninsula.
For example, Kim stated, “Korea would be able to utilize railroads in Russia,
which would reduce the cost of trade. Reunification would also halve our
expenditures on national defense.”
Lee Woo Youl, a professor from Konkuk
University, expanded on this point, noting that to better prepare for such an event, encouraging and fostering an environment wherein North Korea could
adopt a system similar to that of China when it opened its economy in the late
1970s and 1980s would prove invaluable to quell many of the concerns
surrounding a united Korea.
Until that day, however, Joo Sung Ha of the
Dong-A Ilbo urged for more South Korean investment north of the 38th parallel.
He conceded that the issue is a divisive one–many argue that economic
investment in the North would merely strengthen and prolong Kim Jong Un’s
regime; nevertheless, unknown variables like “an abrupt collapse or assassination
scenario” should override such misgivings and illuminate the need for more
economic inroads, he asserted.
“The South Korean public thinks that
reunification will be an economic boon for both Koreas, given North’s cheap
labor and profusion of underground resources,” Joo explained, “but South Korea
will not be able to profit from these advantages if it does not make take steps
to create jobs for the North Korean citizens now.”
Within a North Korean collapse scenario,
for instance, exists a high probability for scores of young, able North Korean
laborers relocating to China or South Korea for work.. This was, the reporter
went on, the case in Germany’s own reunification, wherein countless young
East German laborers moved to West Germany to the same end.
Joo applied an app example to underpin this
assertion, noting that the former East Germany’s economic growth rate still
lags behind that of the former West Germany, despite the fact that more than 20
years have passed since the two Germanies reunited. This gap, at least in part,
can be traced back to the dislocation of East German laborers following the
fall of the Berlin Wall.
So, then, “once North Korean laborers
settle and achieve economic stability in China or Seoul, they are not likely to
re-settle in their hometowns,” Joo pointed out. To stave off further widening
of the gaping economic disparity driving apart the two Koreas, citizens in the
South with ties to the North to step up and play a larger role in the solution
by making investments in their hometowns North of the border while urging
for bilateral government support to do so.
“North Korean defectors in South Korea are
too busy making ends meet and adjusting to their new lives in the South [to
fill this role],” he pointed out.
This, according to Joo, is where those
displaced during the conflict and/or their descendants, who have stronger bonds
to the North than other South Koreans, come in. “If senior citizens from this
contingent collect money to build a hospital or donate a TV to schools in their
hometowns, that can not only bridge the economic gap, but also give North
Koreans a positive perception about the capitalist South Korean society. They
will think, ‘The capitalist South Korean society affords citizens the chance to
financially succeed enough to make these donations.’”
He cited the example of Chung Ju Young, the
founder of the Hyundai Group. who was born in born and grew up in North Korea’s
Kangwon Province. Chung gifted 1,001 cows to North Korea in 1998 and built a
public gymnasium in Pyongyang, which is named after him.
“North Korea has a public gymnasium in its
capital named after a capitalist — something contrary to the tenants of
socialism,” Joo said.
Needless to say, bilateral government
support is imperative to mold these good intentions into real results. “Korean-Americans
from North Korea have been able to visit their hometowns in the North since
1980s. It is unfair that South Koreans from the North cannot do the same,”
he said, urging for more pressure on both sides from these would-be investors.
Lee Chan Young, a researcher from Donghwa
Institute, agreed, commenting that his own father was originally from North
Korea but passed away seventeen years ago without the opportunity to go back.
For Lee, the sense of connection with the North has only grown stronger with
time, and by consolidating resources–and hope–with like-minded individuals, he
sees major potential for economic investments and development in North
Korea on the horizon.
