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South Korean Minister of Unification Cho Myoung-gyon speaks during a hearing of the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee’s parliamentary audit at the National Assembly on Oct. 11. (Yonhap News)

On Oct. 11, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said “there’s never been a concrete review of lifting the May 24 Measures.” After making this remark during the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee’s parliamentary audit, which was held at the National Assembly on Thursday, Cho underlined that “this is the government’s basic position.”

Cho’s remarks appear to be part of a government effort to calm the controversy stirred up by Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha’s remark the previous day that lifting the May 24 Measures “is under review with related ministries.”

While this controversy began with Kang’s “imprecise remark,” it ultimately served as a reminder of the difficulties faced by the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in as it attempts to expand inter-Korean cooperation amid sanctions on North Korea by the US and the international community. Even US President Donald Trump waded into the fray to reconfirm the US’ position that sanctions on North Korea will be maintained until the North denuclearizes. This teaches the Moon administration a hard lesson about the stubbornness of sanctions on North Korea.

This controversy has centered on the May 24 Measures, sanctions against North Korea that were imposed as an executive order by the administration of ex-president Lee Myung-bak in response to the sinking of the Cheonan corvette in Mar. 2010.

The measures included suspending inter-Korean trade except for the Kaesong Industrial Complex, preventing North Korean ships from navigating in South Korean waters, blocking visits to North Korea except for the Kaesong Complex and Mt. Kumgang, banning new investment in North Korea and suspending North Korean aid projects. Since the measures were an administrative action by the government, the government has the authority to relax, or even lift, them at any time.

In fact, the Lee administration tweaked the May 24 Measures the next year to allow toll processing products to be brought into North Korea, and it also accepted applications for religious figures to visit the North. The following administration, under ex-president Park Geun-hye, allowed inter-Korean logistic cooperation and permitted NGOs to provide the North with fertilizer. As a consequence, the measures can be described as basically obsolete, except for their suspension of inter-Korean trade and ban on new investment.

The ban on North Korean vessels entering South Korean waters is also set to be scrapped, with the military agreement adopted in the Sept. 19 Pyongyang Joint Statement stating that “the two sides’ joint military committee will deliberate the questions of North Korean ships’ use of the Haeju port in Hwanghae Province to travel directly through South Korean maritime territory, as well as North Korean ships’ passage through the Jeju Strait, and devise a solution.”

The reason the government has nonetheless declined to explicitly lift the May 24 Measures is because the suspension of inter-Korean trade and the ban on new investment are linked to UN and US sanctions on North Korea. Since inter-Korean trade and new investment are both blocked by the international community’s sanctions on North Korea, neither of them could be implemented even if the May 24 Measures were lifted.

Simply put, there is nothing to gain from lifting the measures. Furthermore, the government is forced to consider the political fallout of lifting the measures before North Korea has taken action related to the sinking of the Cheonan.

In the end, the crux of the matter is that independent action by South Korea is unable to slip through the fine net of the international community’s sanctions on North Korea. Sanctions on North Korea are also largely responsible for the South’s inability to resume tourism to Mt. Kumgang. Tourism to Mt. Kumgang was halted in response to the fatal shooting of South Korean tourist Park Wang-ja by a North Korean sentry in 2008, and thus has nothing to do with the May 24 Measures.

The difficulty of resuming tours has much more to do with the ban on financial transactions and on the payment of bulk cash to North Korea.

“Starting up tourism to Mt. Kumgang might be subject to UN sanctions,” said Cho, the Unification Minister.

Reopening the Kaesong Complex is also beset with similar problems. The Park administration decided to suspend operations at the Kaesong Complex in Feb. 2016 in response to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test and its launch of long-range missiles. It turned out that Park had made this decision arbitrarily, but its effect is now backed up by UN sanctions that ban the establishment or expansion of joint ventures with North Korea.

Cho adopted a cautious stance in regard to reopening the Kaesong Complex. “A number of factors must be considered, since we have to stay in line with progress toward denuclearization,” he said.

By Yoo Kang-moon, senior staff writer, and Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

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