Big-Ticket Inter-Korean Projects Put on Backburner
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The next administration will put big-budget cross-border economic cooperation projects on the backburner until substantial progress is made at the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs, the presidential transition committee said Monday.
``Humanitarian programs such as the reunion of displaced families should be implemented on schedule, but inter-Korean business projects should be linked to progress over the North's nuclear issue,'' a team official said.
The statement came after a renewed stalemate over the North's nuclear programs in recent weeks.
Pyongyang missed a Dec. 31 deadline to disable its main atomic plants and declare all its nuclear programs. The Stalinist state insists it gave the list to the United States in November, a claim Washington has denied.
As a result, large-scale cross-border projects struck during the inter-Korean summit in October in Pyongyang are likely to take a backseat, he said, referring to a ``peace zone'' project to build an inter-Korean business complex in North Korea's Haeju region.
Plans to repair outdated roads and railways in the North and expand the inter-Korean industrial park in the North's border city of Gaeseong will also be delayed for the time being, he said.
The committee also called for enhancing transparency of the inter-Korean cooperation fund.
President-elect Lee Myung-bak has pledged to take a tougher but more pragmatic stance on North Korea, demanding more reciprocity from Pyongyang.
His flagship pledge on North Korea is aimed at providing economic assistance over the next 10 years, in cooperation with the international community, to help it open up more and boost its per capita national income to $3,000.
Lee, however, has made it clear that the aid will be contingent upon Pyongyang's dismantling of nuclear weapons.
A plan was unveiled last week to create a $40-billion international fund to help finance North Korea's economic recovery. The plan is likely to materialize years after the North disables its nuclear weapons, as it needs co-financing from the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank.
In a New Year's statement, North Korea hoped that the summit pacts made in October will materialize under the Lee administration.
It refrained from commenting on the South Korean President-elect who has pledged a tougher stance on the North, a rare move which North Korea experts say was aimed at cementing ties with the South to sustain the big-ticket cross-border projects backed by Seoul.
The second inter-Korean summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il from Oct. 2-4 produced a package of South Korean-backed business programs, which a state-run economic institute estimated at over $50 billion.