For President of South Korea, a lot is at stake: if the U.S.-North Korean summit, progress is being made, can Moon to realize his cooperation plans and internal political points. By Fabian Kretschmer, Soul.
At the second summit meeting between North Korea and the United States, the media spotlight is almost exclusively on Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un. Unlike the two peaks of the protagonists, the political fate of a third head of state on the outcome of the negotiations in Hanoi, however, depends in the Background: President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in is not up to its inter-Korean rapprochement rate will only continue forward if the nuclear negotiations fail.
A look back: In the last year has been initiated by the government in Seoul, dozens of sporting and cultural events between the two Koreas. Almost in a weekly cycle South Korea travel niche delegations to Pyongyang to forge new plans – a common Taekwondo tournament or a possible host of the summer Olympic games. A remarkable development, especially since the two States were still in 2017, just before a military escalation.
Despite the symbolic track work: inter-Korean train services of the future are still
Disturbing Economic Sanctions
However, the Korean approach policy has to be achieved within the legal framework, in the meantime, a Plateau: the next steps to implement at least parts of the economy eased sanctions against North Korea.
This is a must have to get the South Koreans to feel already in the last August-sensitive: at the Time you wanted to send a South Korean train via border crossing, once across the Northern neighbouring country, as a test drive for an inter-Korean rail connection. The US-led command of the United Nations with its headquarters within the demilitarized Zone of the pilot project, however, rejected for the time being. The decision was also interpreted as a demonstration of power within the Alliance between Seoul and Washington. Until the end of November, the UN command approved the travel of a freight train to North Korea.
“I hope that the upcoming Meeting will be a historic summit, which will transform the Korean Peninsula: a legacy of the Cold war, dominated by hostility and conflict, let, towards a Region of peace and prosperity,” said Moon in a speech to his Cabinet of 11. February. On Monday, he praised trump’s North Korea diplomacy for his “courageous determination”. According to a recent survey by the Korean market research firm real meter 62 percent of the population, also with a view to the forthcoming summit to be optimistic.
South Korea’s entrepreneurs would rather leave today than tomorrow in North Korea’s Kaesong industrial zone to produce
Tourism and factories: the intra-Korean economic projects
The plans of the left-wing government of South Korea provides for far-reaching economic cooperation: First of all Moon wants to open two inter-Korean projects were initiated around the turn of the Millennium, during the so-called “sunshine policy”, but in the end the geopolitical tensions, fell victim to. This is a Hyundai-Asan-funded hotel complex in North Korea’s diamond mountains, which is exclusive to South Korean tourists. Between 1998 and 2008, had visited two millions of the Resort. Since then, the site is broke.
Much more controversial is likely to be the re-opening of the special economic zone on the outskirts of the North Korean border city of Kaesong, where up to the time of closure in 2016, the South Korean factory owners using North Korean workers produced their own Goods. Critics claim that the Regime in Pyongyang to the special economic zone of ingested foreign currency had driven up its nuclear program.
Yoo Chang-geun had passed in Kaesong, a factory for automotive parts. “I think that the intra-Korea a turning point in African economic cooperation in order to achieve peace,” says the business man. He is hoping that the special economic zone will be opened again soon – after all, he had invested heavily in the site. “Due to low cost competitiveness in Kaesong, North Korea is very high,” says Yoo. In comparison to favorable locations in Southeast Asia, add to this that the communication with the North Korean workers due to the common language easier. Not least, the logistical effort is minimal.
With North Korea, South Korea has a cheap work bench directly in front of your own door: in the long term, large conglomerates from the South squint to large infrastructure projects and natural resources in the North.
Protest against moon’s rapprochement policy to the North
Survey of the values in the descent
That the President of South Korea, a niche economy for intra-Korean projects, also has tangible economic reasons: The domestic economic policy of the left-wing Moon is considered to be extremely controversial. The drastic increase in the minimum wage has upset entrepreneurs as well as consumers. Tax increases for the Expansion of the welfare state, only to be welcomed by a minority of South Koreans. At the same time, youth unemployment is at a record high for the past 20 years.
Moon’s once-utopian high approval ratings of 80 percent are long-only under 50 percent. The 66-Year-old urgently needs a success story for his angekratztes Image. The nuclear failure in the planned summit in Hanoi, negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, would have a massive impact on his perception in South Korea. Finally, Moon was Jae In himself, who has assured his counterpart Trump that Kim was willing to surrender its nuclear Arsenal.
North Korea warns to date the highest-ranking Defector Thae Yong Ho, to 2016, the Deputy Ambassador in London, but prior to that, Kim charm Jong Us Offensive of the fall: “Nobody in the world can bring North Korea to its nuclear program”, he warned recently, in the fully occupied Seoul correspondent club. The maximum result of the nuclear negotiations that Pyongyang coming clean parts of its nuclear production in exchange for easing of sanctions.