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South Korean President Moon Jae-in and First Lady Kim Jung-sook take a tour of the Gardens by the Bay at the Marina Bay Sands resort on July 12. (Yonhap News)

“Korea has another opportunity that does not exist in Singapore or in any other country in the world. That opportunity is inter-Korean economic cooperation. Korea will draw a new economic map that is based on peace and the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. South and North Korea will move forward into an economic community.”

This was part of the 42nd Singapore Lecture, a speech delivered by South Korean President Moon Jae-in while paying a state visit to Singapore on July 12. We should focus on the fact that Moon has employed the themes of inter-Korean economic cooperation and an inter-Korean economic community during the initial phase of denuclearization.

But given the intense sanctions imposed on North Korea by the UN and other bodies in the international community, this does not mean that Moon is going to launch full-fledged inter-Korean economic cooperation right away. “The South Korean government will strive to enable the beginning of economic cooperation through the rapid establishment of a peace regime,” Moon said, indicating that a peace regime must come before economic cooperation.

Even so, the theme of inter-Korean economic cooperation is still significant. This is taken to mean that, if some degree of progress is made on the question of declaring the end of the Korean War – which has emerged as a key point of contention in the process of implementing the joint statement signed during the North Korea-US summit on June 12, which was followed by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to the North on July 6 and 7 – then the Moon administration could get the ball rolling on inter-Korean economic cooperation.

In fact, that would appear to be the key item on the agenda of the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang this fall that was mentioned in the Panmunjeom Declaration after the inter-Korean summit on Apr. 27. During his first meeting with senior secretaries and aides after that summit (on Apr. 30), Moon called on his staff to work hard to prepare for economic cooperation: “I expect that inter-Korean joint surveys and research can be carried out to move ahead with the Oct. 4 Summit Statement (2007) and inter-Korean economic cooperation.”

“Kim Jong-un is highly motivated to break out of the ideological conflict and to develop North Korea into a normal country. He will be able to keep his promise about denuclearization and to transform his country,” said Moon in his speech on Friday while mentioning that he had met Kim on two occasions. Moon was underlining that there was no need to doubt Kim’s willingness to denuclearize.

Exclusive focus on denuclearization a “betrayal of the spirit of the NK-US agreement”

And then, during a Q&A session that followed the speech, Moon said that the gist of the June 12 North Korea-US joint statement was “an agreement to trade North Korea’s complete denuclearization for security assurances for the North Korean regime and the cessation of hostile relations.” Focusing exclusively on denuclearization was both a nonstarter and a betrayal of the spirit of the North Korea-US agreement, Moon argued.

During a state visit to Singapore

Moon acknowledged that “there can be a debate about which comes first, the chicken or the egg, over the course of the technical negotiations” but warned that “if the leaders [of North Korea and the US] do not keep the promises they made before the international community, they will be judged sternly by the international community.” While this remark is superficially a “neutral warning” that both North Korea and the US should be thoughtful of each other instead of only advancing their own interests, in actuality it is mostly aimed at the US.

Appeal to ASEAN to broaden relations with Pyongyang

“If peace is achieved on the Korean Peninsula, it will become the most prosperous region on earth along with Singapore and ASEAN,” Moon said. His appeal for ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) to broaden its relations with the North also demands our attention. Moon is laying the groundwork for the international cooperation that will fuel peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula – including the rebuilding of the North Korean economy – once a certain degree of progress has been reached in the process of denuclearization and building a peace regime.

“This speech envisioned the future of the Korean Peninsula, which has undergone rapid changes during the first half of this year. This was essentially the second round of the Korber Foundation speech,” said a senior official at the Blue House. During a speech that Moon delivered before the Korber Foundation in Berlin on July 6, 2017, less than two months after he was inaugurated as president, he laid out for the first time the new administration’s plan for peace on the Korean Peninsula. “What we are pursuing is only peace,” Moon said during that speech.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer, and Seong Yeong-cheol, staff reporter

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