PRESS RELEASE
South Korean Opposition Plan for North Korea Based on Development
Nov. 28, 2016 (EIRNS)—As the failed Park Geun-hye government disintegrates, leading figures in the opposition parties and opposition press have come together around a "peace through development" perspective for reunification with the North, reports the Hankyoreh, which generally supports the opposition.
On Nov. 24, Seoul mayor Park Won-soon of the opposition Minjoo (Democratic) Party, summarized his policy plan for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula based on a development perspective of the North.
"President Park Geun-hye talks about unification as a ‘bonanza,’, but with inter-Korean relations at such an impasse, this is more like bankruptcy," Park Won-soon said. To bring about the shift toward a policy of peace, Park argued, the South should start doing what can be done right away. The starting point, he said, was "immediately rescinding the May 24 Measures [sanctions barring inter-Korean trade] and resuming humanitarian aid."
The forum was one of a series around the country organized by the opposition to move the current anger against President Park into a focus on peaceful development and reunification.
Mayor Park’s northern "new deal" represents the idea of using North Korea as a bridge to expand into Eurasia.
"Given that the South Korean economy is stuck in a low-growth morass, expanding to the north is no longer optional—it's essential," the mayor said. Citing news reports suggesting that plans are underway to use bridges and tunnels to link Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railway to the Japanese island of Hokkaido, Park expressed concerns that this would make not Japan but South Korea the real island, Hankyoreh reports. Park criticized the current administration for being "fools or unpatriotic race traitors" for squandering the opportunity to move north by weakening relations with North Korea.
