South Korea's Engagement Dilemma

Quiz any South Korean fifth grader about the situation with the North, and they’ll immediately point to reunification of the two countries within the next 20 years.  When asked why this should come about, they’ll respond matter-of-factly: “Because we are all Koreans, and Korea should be one nation.”

This thinking – which is held by the nation’s young and old – puts South Korean policymakers in a tough situation.  Since former Korean president Kim Dae Jung instituted the Sunshine Policy of engagement with the North in 1998, political and economic cooperation has led to warmer relations on the ostensible path to reunification.  The Nobel committee even conferred its approval on Kim’s policies by awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000.  But in the wake of North Korea’s recent nuclear test, South Korean policymakers face difficult decisions on where to go from here.

Today, the South’s two most important economic exchange projects with the North came under fire from U.S. negotiators visiting Seoul in advance of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice’s official visit.  Christopher Hill, the head negotiator for the U.S., used strong language to condemn the South’s economic assistance and essentially called for the cessation of programs.  

The project under the most scrutiny is Hyundai Asan’s tourist operation at Mount Geumgang.  Hyundai paid North Korea $940 million for rights to open the area to South Korean tourism in 1998, and over one million visitors have dished out big bucks to visit the site, which is considered sacred to all Koreans.  Hill now says that the Mount Geumgang project “seems to be designed to give money to the North Korean authorities” and has asked South Korea to reevaluate continuation of the project.

The other controversial enterprise, which Hill calls a genuine “long-term investment in human capital,” is the Gaesong Industrial Complex just north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).  Created to provide much-needed employment for the North’s workers while providing cheap labor for the South’s companies, the project is now under economic fire.  American buyers have already canceled contracts with some of the 15 South Korean companies that manufacture goods there, and other investors are packing up and leaving in anticipation of further pressures due to sanctions imposed by the UN’s Security Council earlier this week.  

Further disagreement remains over the South’s lack of involvement in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), an international program begun by the U.S. in 2003 to stop the trade of weapons of mass destruction.  Believing that full acceptance of the PSI would seriously provoke the North but not wanting to jeopardize its alliance with the U.S., South Korea decided last year to participate in the PSI as an observer only.  In this capacity, the South only remains responsible for continuing currently performed military exercises between domestic troops and their American counterparts stationed in the South.  Using the North's recent nuclear test as leverage, though, the U.S. is now pushing the South for full acceptance, which includes responsibility for involvement in international military exercises.

What Washington seems to misunderstand is the deep divide that exists between its tough stance on North Korea and the South’s more generous policy.  Most South Koreans see those in the North as ethnic equals who deserve engagement and dialogue, so there is a general disapproval for the severity of Washington’s rhetoric and policy. Additionally, there is much controversy in Seoul now over how to impose sanctions that would not only hurt North Korean workers, but would be disastrous to South Korean companies that have invested billions of won (millions of dollars) in North Korean projects.  While some in the leading Uri party are calling for a diplomatic envoy to be sent to the North to reignite diplomatic efforts, the minority Grand National Party has officially called for an end to all inter-Korean economic projects.  All the while, both parties reaffirm their commitment to actions bolstering their alliance with the U.S.  But resentment remains toward a world power that seems to disregard valid Korean concerns in favor of its more overarching goal of ending proliferation, the means of which could prove to be dire for the South and its future goals.

(You all should know that I believe South Korea's Sunshine Policy to be too lax toward the North, but that the US's "axis of evil" talk hasn't helped our cause, either.  I'm only offerering this article as an insight into what people and lawmakers in Korea are thinking.) 

tags: northkorea  korea  issues