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Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung in a New Year's message on Tuesday said South Korea must assume responsibility for solving the poverty of North Korea. In the message e-mailed to all ministry officials, the minister said the South has to assume responsibility ¡°as a country exporting US$300 billion worth of products and services around the world and one of the 10 largest economies and since its people share the same blood as the North Koreans.¡± Lee said, "Security on the Korean Peninsula will always be in danger, and we cannot guarantee peace on the peninsula unless we can find a fundamental solution to the problem of poverty in the North.¡±
Asked by reporters if poverty would be the motivation behind North Korea¡¯s nuclear test in October, he said, "Poverty is one of the reasons the North did it.¡± The solution Lee has in mind appears to go beyond mere rice and fertilizer aid the South now provides. Pundits say Lee may be thinking of more large-scale projects. The remarks come amid increasing talk of a second inter-Korean summit in the ruling party as the election year gets under way.
The government provides rice and fertilizer to the North on humanitarian grounds. But that is not enough to address the fundamental poverty there, and a different approach is needed. Lee appears to be thinking of comprehensive economic aid so Pyongyang can overcome poverty. Experts speculate that the government is thinking about a large-scale economic package similar to the Marshall Plan that revived Europe after World War II.
Lee is not the first to propose the idea: in March 2000, then president Kim Dae-jung said South Korea ¡°is willing to help North Korea address its economic difficulties and expand its social infrastructure. Shortly afterwards, the North accepted the idea of the first inter-Korean summit. President Roh Moo-hyun during an event commemorating it on June 15, 2004 "We are willing to cooperate with the North to expand a variety of infrastructure facilities there and increase its industrial production capability, which will dramatically improve its economic situation.¡± Roh also called for a comprehensive plan to help North Korea develop its economy to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem right after the North agreed to scrap its nuclear program during six-party talks in Beijing in September 2005.
On Tuesday, the unification minister said, "We need to offer aid to North Korea from a more productive and longer perspective beyond what is currently being done. We need to restate our concept of aiding the North so that it can continue under the next administration.¡± Kim Tae-hyo, a political scientist at Sungkyunkwan University, says it sounds as if the government wants to help North Korea in infrastructure or logistics systems, beyond cooperative projects like package tours to Mt. Kumgang or the Kaesong Industrial Complex. ¡°It seems to have concluded that it must do it in a way so the next government can¡¯t change the policy on aid to the North it has set.¡±
Lee made no mention of any responsibility the North Korean regime might bear for the country¡¯s abject poverty. Nam Joo-hong, a political scientist at Kyonggi University says, "We can offer humanitarian aid to the North to resolve its food shortages as a people sharing the same blood, but poverty in the North was brought about by structural problems and the Kim Jong-il regime, not by us. How can we take any responsibility for that?" Andrei Lankov, a North Korea specialist from Australian National University, who currently teaches at Kookmin University, agreed. "The government seems to be talking about helping the North develop its economy. In theory that makes sense, but it first needs to persuade the North.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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