Inter-Korean oceanic trade routes on rosy prospect
Proposed inter-Korean trade routes connecting South Korea's Yeongjongdo Island with Gaesong and Haeju in the North. / Korea Times graphic by Lee Jong-eun
By Ko Dong-hwan
With the inter-Korean summit under way on Friday, another inter-Korean breakthrough may be on the way ― a network of trade routes connecting cities of both countries near the Korean Peninsula's western seaboard.
The emerging road network would connect Yeongjongdo Island in the South, the home of Incheon International Airport, to the North's Gaesong Industrial Complex in North Hwanghae Province and Haeju in South Hwanghae Province. The Gaesong complex is an inter-Korean project which combined South Korean industrial know-how and North Korean labor in a proto-reunification experiment in economic cooperation that was supposed to eventually lead to cultural openings between the two Koreas.
The project has been in the wind since South Korean President Moon Jae-in promised the western port city of Incheon during the 2017 presidential election that he would support a “West Sea peace cooperation belt” via an inter-Korean trade network.
Haeju was mentioned during the inter-Korean summit in 2007, when the city was nominated to be the center of an inter-Korean triangular free economic zone connecting the city, Incheon and Gaesong.
Freight trucks and other vehicles head to Gaesong Industrial Complex in North Hwanghae Province past Dorasan Inter-Korea Transit Office in November 2017. / Korea Times file
An Incheon city official said Friday that the new network comprising roads and bridges would “improve the border region's balance and lay down a traffic infrastructure” in preparation for a unified Korean Peninsula.
“The upcoming project will serve as a core infrastructure to the inter-Korean economy that hinges around the logistics system using the Incheon International Airport and Incheon Port,” the official said.
Once the network is completed, Haeju and Gaesong will be within a one hour-drive of the Incheon International Airport.
The network's development plan consists of three sections: Yeongjongdo Island-Ganghwado Island section of 18 kilometers costing 727 billion won ($676 million) under the first phase; Gwanghwado Island-Gaepoong-Gaesong Industrial Park section of 45 kilometers costing 1.2 trillion won under the second phase; and Gwanghwado Island-Haeju section of 16 kilometers costing 505 billion won under the third phase.
Incheon plans to build a 3.3 kilometer bridge connecting Yeongjongdo Island and Sindo Island, which will be the starting leg of the first phase. The city wants to receive 70 percent of the starting project's total budget of 96 billion won from the central government by requesting that the project be included in the central government's “border region development plan.”
Once the interior and safety ministry's border region policy audit committee evaluates and passes the city's bid by the end of June, the bridge will be complete before 2024.
An 11 kilometer bridge between Sindo Island and Ganghwado Island will be financially supported by a private consortium at the free economic zone in southern Ganghwado Island that will build a 9 million-square-meter medical tourism village and funnel the earnings to cover the construction cost.