South Ready to Help Norths Forestation
By Jung Sung-ki, Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporters
President Lee Myung-bak said Friday that South Korea should launch efforts to help the forestation of North Korea to prepare for the reunification of the two Koreas.
Lee also reiterated his willingness to push the cross-country canal project as a way to clean contaminated river water.
``South Korea should begin now to cooperate on the forestation of North Korea,'' Lee said, while being briefed by the Ministry of Environment on its policy goals in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province. The North has not yet responded.
``Such cooperation would not only help (the two Koreas) prepare for reunification, but also help conserve our land. In addition, it would also help us create a national value of environmental protection,'' said Lee.
He instructed his Cabinet to consider sending young plants and seedlings to North Korea ahead of Arbor Day, which falls on April 5, to help the communist state's forestation efforts.
Lee also called for efforts to cut carbon emissions.
``Carbon emission-related businesses have already come into being in Europe. We should also brace for the enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol in 2013,'' he said.
The President asked ministry officials to launch a nationwide campaign to persuade people that tap water is safe to drink.
Lee is known for initiating a tap water promotion campaign while serving as Seoul mayor between 2002 and 2006, and having the Seoul metropolitan government provide bottled tap water, named Arisu.
As for environmental contamination, he said he was disappointed to see Youngsan River polluted and doubts whether the government should spend more than 2 trillion won to clean it.
``The government is to spend about 20 trillion won to clean four rivers _ Han, Youngsan, Nakdong and Geum _ over the next eight or nine years. I think it would be a waste of money. We need more fundamental measures to deal with it,'' he said.
Lee has said since his presidential campaign that constructing the canal can upgrade the quality of river water, and his comments at the briefing are perceived as his resolution to push his project further, despite political parties' move to veto it.
The governing Grand National Party (GNP) previously said it will not select the canal project as a main pledge for the April 9 National Assembly elections.
Moreover, some of the defectors of the party, who failed to win the party's nomination for the election, said they would launch an anti-canal campaign. Therefore, rumors had it that the President could be having second thoughts on his blockbuster plan. But Friday, he seemed solid, experts said.
The environment ministry also showed several ways to ease regulations on the country's development plan to help revive the economy.
It has already announced loosened environmental bans on building industrial complexes near water supply sources. While the current law prevents the building of factories within 15 kilometers of water sources, the ministry will reduce it to 7 kilometers.
Through the revision, the government expects more real estate to be available for industrial use. In Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, for example, 75 percent of the land was regulated against development, but this willdrop to 30 percent,
Also, the government set greenhouse gas emissions in 2012 to be about the same as in 2007. Since Korea is one of the most gas-emitting countries in the world, environmentalists have requested the government to set regulations to reduce the emissions.
However, a ministry official said maintaining the status quo is the best the country can do. ``We expect the industry to lead us to emit 12 percent more gas in the future. Therefore, maintaining the same amount as now could be referred to as a `reduction' in some ways,'' Kim Jin-tae, the ministry's spokesman, said.
Environmental civic groups denounced the ministry. Green Fund said the ministry's plans are ``going completely in the opposite direction to international trends and that they are shameful.''