Joint Survey
Two Koreas Need to Set Up New Model for Cooperation
It is meaningful that the two Koreas have agreed to send a joint survey team to China and Vietnam next month to find an international model for the betterment of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex. The agreement came before planned bilateral talks between Washington and Pyongyang to make a breakthrough in the prolonged standoff over the North's nuclear weapons program. It may be a sign that the North is trying to create a favorable atmosphere for the talks by making some conciliatory gestures toward the South, though it has yet to change its brinksmanship tactics.
The Seoul government also needs to mend ties with the Kim Jong-il regime to ease tensions and move toward reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula. In this regard, we hope the dispatch of the joint survey team will serve as a catalyst to improve the tense inter-Korean relationship and expand economic collaboration. And we urge the North to make more sincere efforts to turn the Gaeseong park, a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation following the first summit between leaders of the two rivals in 2000, into a treasure house to bring co-prosperity to the divided nation.
Announcing the agreement, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said Thursday that the Seoul government expects the joint survey to contribute to enhancing cooperation at the Gaeseong complex. The 10-day survey mission, scheduled to start on Dec. 12, will consist of 10 people from each side. The team will look into incentives for foreign investors, the customs process, management, and operational systems at industrial parks in China and Vietnam that can be used as references for a new leap for the inter-Korean complex.
The international survey will be the third of its kind after the first in 2005 and the second in 2007. The previous ones, in fact, did not help the North learn much from the market-oriented reform and open-door policy of such socialist countries as China and Vietnam. The reason was that the world's last Stalinist country has tenaciously refused to reform its dilapidated economy and open its door to the outside world. The North even threatened to shut down the Gaeseong complex, just north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas, earlier this year as bilateral relations were aggravated due to Pyongyang's saber rattling.
It is important for both sides to make sure that the operation of the industrial complex should not be significantly affected by geopolitical risks. Many South Korean businesses running production lines there were considering pulling out of the park due to the North's frequent threats of border closure and restrictions on cargo traffic and the travel of businessmen. The North has also demanded a four-fold increase in monthly wages for each worker to $300 and a steep hike in rent for land. And the detention of an employee of Hyundai Asan, the complex's South Korean operator, had negative implications on the project. The man was released in August after 136 days of captivity for unspecified reasons.
Most of all, South and North Korea should restore mutual trust to ensure the smooth operation and further expansion of the complex, where 116 South Korean firms employ about 40,000 North Korean workers to produce such goods as electronics, clothing and kitchenware. The future of the complex depends on how much effort the two sides will make to set a new model for inter-Korean cooperation and prosperity.