By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter



Unification Minister Chung Dong-young


Unification Minister Chung Dong-young indicated Wednesday that the government plans to form an economic community of South and North Korea by 2020, describing peace and promotion of economic cooperation as two sides of the same coin to achieve the goal.
In an interview with Reuters last week, Chung said the two Koreas will have developed into a joint economic union by 2020, adding it was his personal vision as a politician.

But Chung, speaking at a forum organized by a local economic daily in Seoul, said that he and the government share the common vision of establishing an inter-Korean economic community by 2020, in consideration of the rapid development and integration in neighboring countries.

``The 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) are proceeding to achieve free and open trade and investment in the region by 2020, and, I thought, where should the Korean Peninsula be and must North Korea remain isolated by that time?’’ he said.

The unification minister then pointed to China and Vietnam as possible role models.

``Chinese people share the vision of becoming a welfare state by then,’’ he said. ``What we want is for North Korea to follow in the footsteps of Vietnam. It is with this premise that we don’t intend to absorb or bring down the North. I think to some extent the North has trust on that point.’’

Chung stressed that putting an end to the hostility between the United States and the North and the latter’s gaining full membership in international community hold key for the communist North to survive and ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula.

When asked whether products made in the inter-Korean joint industrial complex in the North could pass as South Korean-made goods in the international market, Chung said the issue would be settled once the U.S. lifts economic sanctions against the North, taking it off the list of countries it believes sponsor terrorism.

In the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea, some of the 15 South Korean companies authorized for inter-Korean ventures are operating factories using the North’s cheap labor.

Singapore signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with South Korea last year, and has said it will grant special tariffs on Kaesong products so that they can be treated like South Korean goods. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with which South Korea is moving to set up an FTA, is also looking favorably at the issue.

Asked whether the South could make efforts to soften the Wassenaar Arrangement, which prohibits exporting ``strategic items’’ to so-called rogue states including North Korea, to further develop cooperation in information technology (IT) with the North, Chung said the U.S. Export Administration Regulation (EAR) is affecting the issue more gravely.

``The North asks us to assist them with computers through diverse channels,’’ he said. ``Basically, the issue should be dealt with in line with the process of normalizing bilateral ties between the U.S. and the North.’’

Earlier this year, the two Koreas reached an agreement to open up direct phone link-ups between Seoul and Kaesong. The implementation of the agreement stalled, however, due to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s EAR, which bans exports of items or technology believed to be of strategic importance to countries considered to sponsor terrorism. South Korea’s biggest telecom operator KT filed a request months ago, and the U.S. gave the nod only this month.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is so deeply interested in IT field that he is thoroughly well-versed especially in Ireland’s development process, according to the unification minister. ``They created a whole new world with IT where they used to grow potatoes. We are also doing our best to grow human resources in the field,’’ Chung quoted Kim as saying.

saltwall@koreatimes.co.kr