From Yonhap:
9/14/2006
South Korea’s vice unification minister on Thursday said his country would continue its economic cooperation with North Korea, adding that increased cooperation between the divided Koreas is the key to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
“Economic cooperation between the North and the South is playing a key role in various ways to manage the situation on the Korean Peninsula stably,” Vice Unification Minister Shin Un-sang said.
The remarks came as part of a congratulatory speech at the opening of a symposium here on inter-Korean economic cooperation, co-hosted by the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice and the National Unification Advisory Council.
Shin said inter-Korean economic cooperation has significantly reduced tension on the Korean Peninsula by replacing, or removing, the North’s heavy artillery unit in the border town of Kaesong with a joint industrial complex for South Korean firms.
He also claimed the North would now have to think twice before performing any acts that could heighten or cause tension on the Korean Peninsula as increased economic cooperation gives it a greater interest in pursuing peace and stability.
“Inter-Korean economic cooperation is playing a role in preventing additional tension (on the Korean Peninsula). Various forms of economic cooperation between the two, including the Kaesong industrial complex, are helping the North and South Korea to move toward (promoting their) mutual interests,” Shin said.
Relations between the Koreas improved significantly after their leaders met in an historic summit in Pyongyang in 2000. The amount of inter-Korean trade increased to over US$1 billion last year from $290 million in 1995, according to Kim Chun-sig, director of the ministry’s inter-Korean economic cooperation bureau, who also joined Thursday’s symposium.
The government believes that economic cooperation with the North also helps open the reclusive state to the outside world by offering chances for its people to meet with South Korean officials and businesspeole, as well as being an opportunity to witness the South’s advanced economy.
