hankyoreh

North Korea summoned officials from North Korean businesses yesterday and notified them of its plan and schedule for investigating real estate South Korea has possessed within the Mt. Kumgang tourism zone. This is part of an effort to apply pressure on South Korea, with the message that if it does not resume tourism efforts, North Korea will void the current contract and bring in a new program operator. The Mt. Kumgang tourism project, which began in 1998 as the first project of inter-Korean economic cooperation since the Korean War, is facing a major crisis.

North Korea’s actions are misguided for a number of reasons. To begin, they are problematic because they are unilateral. If a contract that both North Korea and South Korea managed with difficulty to agree upon and carry out is discarded according to the wishes of one side, the foundation of other inter-Korean projects is also shaken. Indeed, already frosty inter-Korean relations could move quickly into a worst-case scenario. In addition, the international community’s perception of North Korea will become chillier. There is a strong chance that North Korea will find it more difficult to attract the foreign capital it desires, and that its actions will also have a negative effective on discussions toward loosening sanctions on the country. Such damages are incomparable next to the slight benefits North Korea might obtain from a new program operator.

The attitude of the South Korean government is also highly problematic. It has set three preconditions for resuming the tourism effort, namely an investigation into the 2008 shooting death of a South Korean tourist, measures to prevent similar incidents from taking place in the future, and guarantees on the safety of tourists. But North Korea has already shown its good faith regarding the investigation and safety guarantee conditions, and preventive measures are something that require a specific plan to be put in place through continued discussions. In this situation, the South Korean government could resume the tourism venture at any time if it only made up its mind to do so.

The main reason that tourism has not resumed in spite of this is that the Lee Myung-bak administration has linked the resuming the project to issues of nuclear negotiations and tourism compensation. It views halting tourism as a form of sanctions against North Korea, and regards the very project as a test case for its policy of requiring denuclearization first. This approach shares the same vein as the Cold War-style notion of downplaying the significance of economic cooperation. If all money that goes to North Korea is seen as being used for nuclear development, economic cooperation has almost no place to stand.

The inter-Korean economic cooperation that has taken place to date has done a great deal to relieve tensions on the peninsula and build trust between North Korea and South Korea, adding substance to their relationship. The resumption of Mt. Kumgang tourism is now a touchstone for determining whether economic cooperation will continue, or whether the Lee administration will bring about the thorough freezing of inter-Korean relations. North Korea’s approach since the latter half of 2009, hanging its head and asking for the resumption of the tourism effort, appears now to be reaching its limit. A contract with a new program operator will be the turning point. If the Lee administration does not wish to abandon the entire Mt. Kumgang tourism project, we hope that it will move to resume the effort as soon as possible.

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