Presidential Hopeful Stresses Engagement With North Korea
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, a presidential hopeful of the pro-government camp, Friday proposed that South Korea help transform the North's nuclear facilities in Yongbyon into a special economic zone after the North has scrapped its nuclear weapons program.
In a press conference at the North's border city of Gaeseong, in the inter-Korean economic zone, Chung outlined his North Korean campaign pledges focused on engagement.
Chung stressed the need for a ``comprehensive approach'' toward the North Korean nuclear issue, opposing measures narrowly focused on dismantling its nuclear programs as a first step.
Chung pledged that if elected, he will seek to establish a peace treaty replacing the armistice signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War and eventually form a Korean confederation.
He also called for developing the Gaeseong complex into an expanded ``special zone for peace and economy'' that will serve as a northern business hub linking with Seoul and Incheon in the South.
The Gaeseong complex, just north of the heavily fortified Korean border, is considered one of the main achievements of the landmark 2000 inter-Korean summit. The zone is called a testing ground for mixing South Korean capitalism and technology with the North's cheap labor.
Twenty-three South Korean firms produce goods ranging from clothes to kitchenware there, employing about 15,000 North Korean workers. The number of North Korean employees is expected to increase to more than 350,000 when the complex becomes fully operational by 2012, officials said.
Monthly production at the complex is valued in excess of $10 million.
The former chairman of the Uri Party called for holding a four-way summit between the two Koreas, the United States and China to discuss ways of resolving the impasse with the North's nuclear program.