[imText1]Hwang Jang Yop, the president of the Committee for Democratization of North Korea, revealed that Kim Il Sung said “we can gain an easy 1.5 billion dollars while Kim Young Sam (the South Korean President from `93~`98) visits North Korea,” recalling the time when South-North Summit Talks were planned by Kim Young Sam and Kim Il Sung in 1994. According to president Hwang, Kim Il Sung was elated in repeatedly saying “North Korea can earn 1.5 billion dollars by linking rail roads between South Korea and Russia for transportation of South Korean, Russian and even Japanese goods.”
On May 31st, Hwang first revealed this information in a North Korean democratization lecture held by Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights to educate professional activists playing important roles in the democratization of North Korea. His quote reveals the possibility that North Korean authority may try to collect astronomical cash tolls with the current rail road project.
It was already well know that Kim Il Sung strongly desired the linkage of railroads between the South and the North. An officer of the National Intelligence Service in South Korea recently disclosed that Kim Il Sung was preparing to visit Seoul via the Kyungui Line as a reciprocal gesture for the visit of Kim Young Sam, had he not died. Hwang said that 1.5bn dollars in North Korea was a colossal amount of money at the time and that Kim Dae Jung secretly passed a large amount of cash to Kim Jong Il.
Additionally he criticized the attitude of ruling party candidates in the Presidential Election: “Do they think that they would be elected had they accepted authorized stamps from Kim Jong Il? I don’t know why they are so eager to engage Kim Jong Il. They must be full of confidence to manage the North issues based on a firm alliance with the U.S. and South Korean developed economic power.”
He emphasized that new Presidential standards are necessary in which the Sunshine Policy is forsaken and the U.S. alliance strengthened.
According to him, China needs peace on the Korean Peninsula for its own interests. Specifically, Chinese support of the Kim Jong Il regime prohibits the advance of American style democracy into North Korea. Therefore, if the international community, lead by the U.S., were to guarantee that North Korean reformation would take place according to Chinese standards, the Chinese government would lose its incentive to help Kim Jong Il. It could prompt the first step towards North Korean normality and development.
