By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The illusion that South Koreans can buy durable peace on the Korean Peninsula for approximately 6 trillion won per year for 10 consecutive years poses a threat to presidential nominee Lee Myung-bak of the conservative Grand National Party (GNP), a North Korea expert said.
Prof. Nam Sung-wook of Korea University in Seoul said that contenders of the United New Democratic Party (UDP) are highly likely to spread propaganda in the presidential campaigning claiming the price tag of peace stands at a mere 60 trillion won in the presidential campaign.
The figure is based on a Korea Development Bank (KDB) report in 2005 on the estimated costs to pursue inter-Korean economic projects.
``The propaganda is likely to pose a challenge to the GNP nominee in the presidential campaign as people will conceive it is not a big deal to pay 6 trillion won per year as long as they can achieve durable peace,'' Nam said at a seminar in the National Assembly Tuesday.
Nam is an architect of presidential nominee Lee's alternative vision for North Korea which has a high level of engagement policy elements.
Previously, Lee pledged the GNP will craft policy packages to offer considerable economic incentives to the North if it gives up its nuclear ambitions.
The KDB report said an estimated 59.9 trillion won is needed for completing the South-North economic projects between 2006 and 2015.
The costs include five business areas of social overhead capital, the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, the Mt. Geumgang tourism project, energy cooperation, and building of infrastructure in the North.
According to Nam, the government plans to finance the 60-trillion won projects through various means including a lottery, government bonds, tax increases, budget transfer from defense spending to inter-Korean economic projects, foreign direct investment and investment from the private sector.
During the seminar, GNP Chairman Kang Jae-sup said leaders of the two Koreas should not make a compromise on the territory issue such as the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the inter-Korean summit slated for Oct. 2-4 in Pyongyang.
Kang explained this is because once the agreement is made it will be hard for the next government to change.
Experts agreed that reaching a conclusion on a peace treaty is another key issue as the treaty will complicate the presence of U.S. military in the South due to the nature of the treaty.
They said peace treaty could be a source of tension between Korea and the U.S in the future.
They advised that the GNP should keep monitoring how the South-North summit goes and craft the corresponding strategy to deal with the possible negative political fallout on the presidential election on Dec. 19.