Creatively reviving Gaeseong
By Andrew Salmon
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President Moon Jae-in has pledged to look at ways to reopen the Gaesong Industrial Complex, or GIC, the stalled flagship project of inter-Korean commerce and cooperation. To do this, he will be forced to navigate a minefield of political and diplomatic issues.
And even leaving aside those issues, the thorny, practical question behind restarting Gaesong is: Which companies are going to (re)populate the complex?
After opening in 2004, the GIC was closed for five months by Pyongyang in 2013, and in February 2016, was closed by Seoul. Today, a complex which hosted 124 small South Korean companies and employed over 54,000 North Koreans stands silent.
Given these risks, which company would set up there? How many of the South Korean companies which formerly operated there will return? These companies are in business; they have clients. Plenty of destinations regionwide ― Bangladesh, Vietnam, China ― offer cheap labor, without the political risk of Gaesong.
If Moon wants to repopulate the GIC, he needs creative thinking. What kind of business could operate sustainably and viably in the zone?
Enter Doojin Hwang ― a man with a brilliantly creative, highly feasible and very promising concept for the GIC.
Hwang is one of Korea’s new-generation architects. He is also one of those behind the “neo-hanok wave” which has seen the architecture of Korean traditional cottages revived across South Korea.
Hwang’s idea leverages the fact that the city of Gaesong, as the site of truce talks, was not bombed during the Korean War, so is today Korea’s (and the world’s) largest surviving cluster of authentic hanok.
Hwang’s idea is this: Turn the GIC into a hub for the manufacture of prefabricated hanok, designed and made by North Koreans, for South Koreans. It would be ― literally ― “a cottage industry.” The idea has sound grounds.
South Koreans despise traditional, historic, authentic hanok ― virtually all of which have been bulldozed nationwide ― but love neo-traditional, contemporary faux hanok. These modern versions of pre-modern Korean homes are sprouting up in erstwhile traditional hanok districts in cities, as bars, cafes, restaurants, guest houses, photo studios and art galleries. In the countryside, they are appearing as weekend homes, niche pensions and boutique hotels.
However, they are not cheap. The craftsmen who make them are in demand. Prices are high. Hence, Hwang suggests, North Korean workers could create economical, prefabricated hanok.
North Korean architects ― who, Hwang assures me, are despite sanctions, fully familiar with the latest architectural software ― would draft the plans. These professionals would not need to be in the GIC itself. They could work from, say, Pyongyang and could communicate via the North Korean Intranet.
With design work done, the manufacturing of various prefabricated hanok designs (home, bar, hotel, others) would be carried out in the GIC. This would involve the creation of the houses’ wooden frames, beams, decorative windows, wooden floors, underfloor heating systems, roof tiles, and other fixtures.
The resulting kits would be packaged and exported to the South as “hanok in a box.” All the buyer would have to do is to slot the pieces together on the land of his/her choice and - voila! An economical, attractive structure with Korean characteristics. If the idea really took off, Kaesong could help repopulate South Korean landscapes and cityscapes with attractive architecture. (Something this apartment-cursed land desperately needs.)
Moreover, enterprising South Korean entrepreneurs could buy the prefab kits in lots from the GIC, and market and export them overseas as a new element of hallyu.
And Hwang is thinking beyond manufacturing. As an adjunct to business, he suggests creating a culturally neutral educational/consulting space in the GIC, wherein North and South Korean architects and heritage experts could meet - perhaps leading to joint projects, North and/or South.
Granted, Hwang’s idea would not employ tens of thousands. But it would be a brilliantly Kaesong-specific use of at least part of the GIC.
It is viable and sustainable. It is non-political, and requires no strategic, “dual-use” technologies. Above all, it is a uniquely Korean concept around which to package and restart cross-DMZ commerce, communication, cooperation and reconciliation.
President Moon: Get to it.
Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based reporter and author. Reach him at andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk.