Archive for the ‘Federation of Korean Industries’ Category

Latest reunification study puts cost at US$3 trillion

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

Here is the report (in Korean) on the KFI web page.   Here is that page translated with Google Translate.

The report was also carried in the English language media. 

According to Reuters:

The cost of reunifying the two Koreas, split since shortly after World War Two, would tot up to about 3,500 trillion won ($3 trillion), the Federation of Korean Industries said on Tuesday.

Not one of 20 economists surveyed by the federation expected reunification in the next five years but almost half said it would happen in 10 to 20 years.

Nearly half also said the largest cost associated with reunification would be in efforts to cut the wealth gap between the wealthy South and the impoverished North.

“The costs to minimize the gap between South and North Korea over the long-term are expected to be greater than the initial cost of reunification,” the federation said in its report.

South Koreans earn an average about $19,230 a year while North Koreans earned about $1,065 in 2008, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.

Concerns about the costs prompted South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to propose a “reunification tax” last month.

“In the short term the shock to the Korean economy will be great but in the long-term reunification will be positive,” the survey said.

The two Koreas are still technically at war as hostilities in 1950-53 Korean War conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Yonhap also covered the report:

Most of the experts also said the divided Koreas will likely be reunified within the next 30 years, according to the survey conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the largest business lobby in South Korea.

The questions raised by the FKI came after President Lee Myung-bak proposed introducing a new “unification tax,” which he said will help lessen the financial burden of reuniting with the communist North.

Of the 20 experts surveyed, 63.1 percent said the reunification of the two Koreas will cost more than that of Germany, about $3 trillion. The amount includes the initial costs of stabilizing the nation following a reunification, but also the costs of eradicating any economic and social disparities between the two Koreas.

Half of the respondents said the country needed to begin discussing ways to pay such enormous costs of reunification, while 20 percent said such discussions must begin immediately.

“It also showed every respondent saw the need for such discussions as no one answered such discussions were unnecessary,” FKI said in a press release.

None of the respondents said the reunification will take place within the next five years, but 95 percent, or 19 out of the people surveyed, said the two Koreas will likely be unified before 2040.

They all agreed the unification with North Korea will be a great burden on the South Korean economy in its near future, but a great opportunity in the long term.

Here are links to previous posts on this topic.

Read the full stories here:
The cost of reunifying Korea? About $3 trillion
Reuters
9/14/2010

Experts say Korean unification will cost over US$3 trillion
Yonhap
9/14/2010

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