August 15th is Liberation Day in South Korea. This year, the 65th anniversary of liberation from Japanese colonial rule, President Lee Myung Bak used his commemorative speech to put forward the idea of a “unification tax”, to be levied in advance of the day when reunification with North Korea comes.
However, President Lee Dong Bok of North Korean Democratization Forum believes that “in terms of inter-Korean relations, now is not an appropriate time to mention a reunification tax.”
Lee, who was speaking this morning on a radio program put out by Peace Broadcasting Company (PBC), asked, “Will people agree to a reunification tax when the problems of the Cheonan issue have yet to be overcome?”
He said, “The point when I felt embarrassment was when he raised the matter of reunification and suddenly was speaking about reunification policy. However, he had not even mentioned what kind of reunification we are implementing.” He added that, “In this situation, with whom can we discuss the reunification tax?”
He also emphasized, “One other key significant issue was missed out. When we discuss the matter of reunification, the thing we must consider first is the people in the North and their pain under the Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il dictatorship.”
He went on, “The primary purpose (of reunification) is to rescue those who are suffering under and starving due to the dictatorship system. Without mention of the most fundamental issue, our brethren in North Korea, only talking about reunification is like going back to the time of the Sunshine Policy.”
He reiterated that, “Without defining the contents of the reunification, we cannot discuss the costs of it.”
President Lee Myung Bak also suggested in yesterday’s speech a “three-step reunification” featuring a peaceful community, then an economic community, and finally a national community.
