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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gives his New Year’s address at the Workers’ Party of Korea headquarters in Pyongyang on Jan. 1. (Yonhap News)
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Proposes reopening of Kaesong Industrial Complex and resumption of Mt. Kumgang tourism
In his New Year’s address, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un emphasized that he would “fully expand cooperation and exchange between South and North Korea” and proposed the “unconditional” reopening of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and the resumption of tourism to Mt. Kumgang as vital priorities. “In consideration of the difficulties of the South Korean businesspeople who invested in the Kaesong Industrial Complex and the desire of our South Korean brethren who want to travel to this famous mountain, I’m willing to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex and resume tourism to Mt. Kumgang without any price or prerequisites,” Kim said during his message, delivered on Tuesday. “If North and South Korea join hands and rely on the united strength of our people, no sanctions or pressure from the outside and no challenges or trials can block our way as we seek to blaze a trail toward the prosperity of our nation,” Kim added. During the Pyongyang Declaration in Sept. 2018, the leaders of South and North Korea agreed to “normalize the Kaesong Complex and the Mt. Kumgang tourism project as soon as the conditions were in place.” Now Kim has gone a step further, declaring that he will place no price or conditions on the two projects, with the apparent goal of underlining his proactive commitment to making progress on that agreement. “This can be taken as a declaration that the first inter-Korean exchange and cooperation projects to pursue after the second North Korea-US summit are reopening the Kaesong Complex and resuming tourism to Mt. Kumgang. This can be interpreted as meaning that the North will allow tourism to Mt. Kumgang without charging an admission fee, or in other words cash,” said a former senior government official who is well-versed in inter-Korean relations. “North Korea seems likely to allow the Kaesong Complex businesspeople to visit the North early this year. The idea is to let them inspect their assets in the complex for now and then to move on with real cooperation when sanctions have been eased,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies. While this ostensibly means that North Korea will not stand in the way of reopening the Kaesong Complex and resuming tourism to Mt. Kumgang, it can also be seen as placing indirect pressure on South Korea to work harder to ease the sanctions. “Since exchange and cooperation are blocked by the UN’s sanctions on North Korea, this was a request for South Korea to mediate in lifting those sanctions,” said Koo Kab-woo, professor at the University of North Korean Studies. “This means that, even while sanctions continue, the Kaesong Complex can be reopened and Mt. Kumgang tourism resumed because they’re unrelated to developing nuclear weapons and missiles,” said Hong Min, head of North Korean research at the Korea Institute for National Unification. On a different point, it’s also notable that Kim said that “we must proactively seek a peaceful plan for unification that’s grounded in an agreement by the entire people.” “In past New Year’s addresses, North Korea has held to its previous line [on unification methods] while emphasizing ‘autonomous unification.’ It’s noteworthy that ‘peaceful unification’ was emphasized in this address,” a government source said. In regard to the inter-Korean summits held last year, Kim said, “It was unprecedented for the leaders of South and North Korea to hold three summits, which clearly shows that inter-Korean relations have entered a completely new phase.” By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
