hankyoreh

Use of the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund for aid to North Korea and inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation projects recorded its lowest level since 2000. While North Korea’s nuclear test had an impact on the first half of the year, the Lee administration’s hardline policies have served as considerably greater factors in producing these results. If the situation continues, even the phrase “inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation projects” will be on the verge of disappearing.

The South Korean government’s decision yesterday to provide 26 billion Won in formula aide for North Korean infants brings the total spent from this fund to around 50 billion Won. This is less than 5 percent of the allocated 1.1182 trillion Won approved for spending from the fund for this year. Prior to 2007, recorded project expenditures came to an estimated 70 percent or 80 percent of the amount allocated for annual spending, and even last year, the first of the Lee Myung-bak administration, used 18.1 percent of its budget. These figures indicate just how effectively the administration has blocked inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation projects from taking place this year. What is more noteworthy is how most of the money used this year was hurriedly decided on after U.S. Special Representative Stephen Bosworth’s visit to North Korea earlier this month.

The Lee administration has virtually suspended all aid to North Korea, with the exception of projects aimed at society’s weakest. This includes suspending rice and fertilizer aid to North Korea, which the South Korean government used to provide the bulk of, and blocking the distribution of private aid, which had been gaining life. The latter is mostly clearly represented by the 25 containers full of agricultural, livestock and forestry supplies that have been tied up in Incheon Port since June. Even an aid project that has been coordinated since 1998 by Jeju-do involving the sending of tangerines to North Korea has run into difficulties due to the administration’s inhospitality. These suspensions of aid have been matched by severe limits on contact between private civilian groups and North Korea. Accordingly, the Southern Committee for the Realization of the June 15 Joint Declaration, which has been denied requests to visit North Korea at the last moment on several occasions, has filed a lawsuit for damages against the Ministry of Unification.

The administration’s avoidance of engaging in inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation projects is the product of both the administration’s fundamentalist attitude that prioritizes progress in the nuclear issue, and its political will to behave differently from the previous administration. Accordingly, pending issues like the restart of the Mt. Kumkang and Kaesong tourist projects have not been resolved, and various humanitarian aid projects have become casualties under a hardline administration policy. Dissatisfaction with this kind of North Korea policy underlies North Korea’s failure so far to respond to South Korea’s offer in October to provide 10,000 tons of corn.

The law regarding inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation says that promotion of exchanges and cooperation between North Korea and South Korea are necessary to contributing towards peace and unification on the Korean peninsula. The Unification Ministry, however, is misusing the law to block exchanges and cooperation from occurring. The administration should know that producing such irregularities as it is doing now is of no help to anyone.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]