South Korea must start preparing for reunification with North Korea, the finance minister said Friday, noting such an event will likely take place in the not too distant future.
"The unification of South and North Korea is a future that is not very far off, which makes the assumption that the countries will not be unified within the next 30 to 40 years seem absurd," Bahk Jae-wan told a meeting with a special committee on long-term fiscal policy, which is currently drawing up its latest report.
The finance minister's remarks apparently urged the committee to reflect the cost of unification, which was earlier estimated to cost up to 249 trillion won (US$220 billion) in the first year alone, in its new report, set to be released next month.
The government took its initial step to prepare for unification in August, allowing a division of an already existing fund of the Unification Ministry to create two accounts -- one for promoting cross-border cooperation and the other for covering unification costs.
Even after years of accumulation, the fund, however, is expected to fall far short of the amount needed.
President Lee Myung-bak has also floated the idea of setting aside part of the government's tax revenues each year to prepare for what he once called an eventual unification of the two Koreas, but such a plan has yet to be materialized amid public resistance, as well as strong protests from the North, which accuses Seoul of seeking unification by absorption.
The finance minister, however, said the country can no longer afford to ignore the issue.
"Unification is a factor that will greatly affect economic and population growth, but it has never been dealt with in any great depth," he said.
"Unification, along with population composition and climate change, will be a key trend that will dominate our society in the future." (Yonhap)