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The Mt. Kumgang tourism project and the Kaesong Industrial Complex are probably the biggest achievements of the Sunshine Policy. But following the suspension of the tourism project after South Korean tourist Park Wang-ja was shot dead there on July 11, the industrial park now also faces closure.
The idea behind the policy was engagement to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula. If Kim Jong-il was given dollars, the thinking went, it would bring about reform and opening in the North.
But the general principles of overseas investment are the exact opposite of that theory. Regions of political instability, either engulfed in a civil war or a regime that can arbitrarily confiscate and expel businesses, are often shunned. Few businesses or states think they can stop a civil war or change the nature of a regime in such a region with their investment.
It was the ¡°one nation¡± principle of the previous administrations that brought violation of general principles of overseas investment. But no inter-Korean security risk has been reduced on account of the Mt. Kumgang tourism project. Instead, potential security risks have become a reality in the fatal shooting of Park Wang-ja and the damage to inter-Korean relations.
The threat to the Kaesong complex shows how reckless the Sunshine Policy was. If the industrial park¡¯s existence hangs on whether South Korean activists send propaganda leaflets to the North or not, the whole project is built on sand. The Sunshine Policy totally misjudged the nature of inter-Korean relations.
In a liberal democratic society, it is a matter of the freedom of expression guaranteed in the Constitution if activists distribute propaganda leaflets. The practice can be controlled only by governments that spit on such principles like North Korea, but not in a democratic society like South Korea. For the North to close the industrial park because of the propaganda leaflets is tantamount to ascribing the threat to the fact that South Korea is a democratic society. However important the complex may be, we cannot surrender our hard-won democracy to this threat.
Views are mixed whether North Korea will actually close the industrial complex. Those who view the threat as mere posturing point out that the complex supplies the North with about US$25 million a year, making it too lucrative to close down.
Another view is that the propaganda leaflets are merely a pretext and that the North will in fact close the complex because it is a living demonstration of capitalism at work for the North Korean people and thus a threat to the regime -- in other words, the industrial park itself is one big propaganda leaflet.
Even if the North's threat to close the complex proves empty, Sunshine Policy models like it have been given a fail grade. If mere leaflets can shake the project, it could cause other problems at any time. The incident also shows how ready the North is for provocations whenever it is displeased. What businesses would safely invest in the North in these circumstances and what government would encourage it?
What's more, North Korea rode roughshod over the Oct. 4, 2007 Summit Declaration when it made the threat. The planned Haeju industrial complex, a peace cooperation zone along the western coast, shipbuilding cooperation zones in Anbyon and Nampo and Mt. Baekdu tourism project, all specified in the declaration, are Sunhshine Policy projects aimed at bringing peace through economic cooperation. Given the current situation, how can they ever take off?
North Korea, prior to demanding the South comply with the June 15, 2000 Joint Declaration and the Summit Declaration, should realize how fatally it has damaged those two agreements.
The column was contributed by Ha Tae-keung, the president of Open Radio for North Korea.
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