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Former president Kim Dae-jung, who is visiting the United States, said in an interview with ABC TV and in a speech at the Korea Society that the leaders of North and South Korea will agree to set up several joint business facilities like the Kaesong Industrial Complex. The agreement, Kim said, would come during their upcoming summit. Those comments are in line with remarks made recently by President Roh Moo-hyun at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Gimcheon innovation city. At that ceremony, President Roh said he will return from the summit with a lot of work for the Korea Land Corporation and the Korea Expressway Corporation. It appears as if the former and incumbent presidents practically shared information related to the upcoming inter-Korean summit. By now, it must be pretty certain that these large-scale aid projects involving North Korea will be agreed during the upcoming summit.
But President Roh has made contradictory comments regarding aid to North Korea. In an interview with a newspaper in June of this year, he said a promissory note issued by a previous president must be honored by the next president. He added whether he has just two or three months left in office, any agreement he signs with North Korea must be honored by his successor. Yet during an informal discussion forum among consultative committee members for the summit, Roh said he would not make any agreements with North Korea that can be a burden on the next administration.
Just which of those two comments turns out to be true will become clear at the summit. But judging from Kim¡¯s comments regarding a second and third Kaesong Industrial Complex and Roh¡¯s reference to ¡°a lot of work¡± for the Korea Land and Korea Expressway corporations, it seems that the comments he made in the newspaper interview are the genuine ones.
It is true that South Korea cannot ignore North Korea, especially with a long-term view to the post-reunification era. But a national and political consensus must precede this. There are estimates that it will cost South Korea W60 trillion (US$1=W921) over the next 10 years if the Seoul government implements all of its envisioned North Korea aid projects. It would be irresponsible for president to go to North Korea and promise to build them factories, highways and ports and sign all the documents he wishes and dump it all on the South Korean public. That is the behavior of an unethical and irresponsible CEO.
If this type of practice is tolerated, something is deeply wrong with South Korea. If the president thinks this is not a problem, he is treading on the South Korean public, its democratic principles, its Constitution, laws and political procedures.
Inter-Korean economic projects have grown, but there is hardly a South Korean business that made money from investing in North Korea. Aside from cheap labor, North Korea is about as bad as it gets in terms of investment destinations. An owner cannot freely visit his own factory and is unable to hire or lay off workers on his own. An inefficient and money-losing venture is bound to wither away no matter how much backing it gets from the government.
We must no longer let this administration view North Korean aid and joint economic projects as mere extensions of South Korean politics. Unless they are properly regulated by the South Korean public, joint economic projects with North Korea can be neither legitimate nor efficient.
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