Posted on 02/27/2006 3:48:29 AM PST by Flavius
KAESONG, North Korea (AP) -- Officials from the divided Koreas on Monday showed off a joint industrial zone, a key project they hope to dramatically expand in coming years in a sign of faith that relations between the two states are moving further toward reconciliation.
"We will bring peace and prosperity to the Korean Peninsula through the Kaesong Industrial Complex," Kim Hyo-jeong, a North Korean official serving on the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee, told foreign journalists.
It marked the first time that non-South Korean reporters from foreign news organizations were allowed to visit the facility, one of the key fruits of a budding detente between the two Cold War rivals.
The communist North and capitalist South have been politically divided since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty, leaving them technically at war.
Tensions have eased considerably in recent years, however, particularly after a historic summit between North Korea leader Kim Jong Il and then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in 2000 fostered increased exchanges and more business deals.
Construction on the Kaesong complex began in June 2003, three years after the summit, and it began operating the following year.
So far, a total of 15 South Korean companies have set up shop here, shipping manufactured goods ranging from kitchen pots to semiconductor parts to the South, utilizing cheap North Korean labor.
Clothing, footwear and containers for cosmetics are among other products manufactured in the zone, where North Korean workers earn about $57 a month.
The zone played a major role in boosting inter-Korean trade to historic levels last year.
Trade surged 51.5 percent in 2005, topping $1 billion for the first time, the Korea International Trade Association, or KITA, said last month.
The value of trade at the Kaesong zone more than quadrupled in 2005 to $176.7 million last year from $41.7 million in 2004, KITA said.
Plans are for zone to host as many as 300 companies by the end of next year.
The nearby city after which the complex takes its name, was once the capital of all Korea and has a long history as an economic center.
Though steadily rising, the amount of trade with North Korea remains minuscule for South Korea, the world's 11th largest economy and the home to industrial behemoths like Samsung Electronics Co. and Posco, the world's fifth-biggest steelmaker.
It's also far less than that between two other divided political rivals, China and Taiwan, who have fostered intense economic exchanges. Two-way trade across the Taiwan Strait totaled 91.23 billion yuan ($11.3 billion) in 2005, according to China's Commerce Ministry.
North Korea's economy grew an estimated 2.2 percent in 2004, the sixth straight year of estimated expansion, as good weather boosted the agricultural sector, according to the Bank of Korea.
South Korea's central bank has issued an annual estimate of the North's economic growth since 1991.
North Korea sank to its lowest point in the 1990s as a series of poor harvests caused by bad weather, combined with economic mismanagement, led to a famine that killed an estimated 2 million people.
Time for us to wrap up and leave SK. We've been there 50 years. What's left to do ?
Thanks for the tip on the series-I will check it out.
If you ever want to see a GREAT movie about Communism and peoples attempts to escape it check out "The Tunnel" it's a German flick that takes place when the Berlin Wall was put up.
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We maintain a presence in ROK for a number of reasons, not all of them directly related to the defense of SK against NK.
NE PacRim is a vital region for US and Global interests. We need a platform from which we can project force quickly. If we abandon Korea then that leaves us only Okinawa (and they want us out).
The Koreas will unite, it's only a matter of time. If we are out of the picture physically then we can exert only minimal influence over what the unified country will look like. And, since nature (and politics) abhors a vacuum, our leaving will create a hole which China would likely fill.
The longer we stay there, the more we are resented.
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We are resented everywhere we have bases, from the UK to Afghanistan. Korea is no different.
Just don't believe all the negative hype. There are elements that resent us but they are not the majority and they are certainly not in charge. College kids everywhere look for a bete-noir they can safely protest. In Korea we are the easy target.
Many US colleges protest our own ROTC on campus. What does that mean? Very little. Let the youth march, it's what they do. Adult Koreans don't want us going anywhere for now. They want unification but so would we in similar circumstances. And, as I said, if we bail then we can't influence the manner and form of the unification.
Any defending we need to do can be done from Guam. The SKs who remember the things we did on their account have largely died off and the current generation doesn't read books.
"So far, a total of 15 South Korean companies have set up shop here, shipping manufactured goods ranging from kitchen pots to semiconductor parts to the South, utilizing cheap North Korean labor.
Clothing, footwear and containers for cosmetics are among other products manufactured in the zone, where North Korean workers earn about $57 a month."
This is how it starts. North Korean workers will start wondering why, if their country is such a paradise, they are producing stuff for the South that they can't even GET in the North.
Another deep thinker.
My deep thinking is the result of having lived in Asia for more than a decade. Have you been there ?
Multiple times to multiple countries including time in the DMZ in ROK.
Then tell me, why do we need to continue stationing troops in SK ?
I gave reasons in two previous posts. Your Guam idea is not
bad, we are already moving about half the Okinawa based Marines there, but there are more reasons than first line defense of SK to maintain a solid presence on the peninsula.
I would also ask, where are the SKs going to sell their TVs and autos ? To the Chinese ? To the French ?
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OK, I'll try it one more time....there are reasons beyond first line defense of SK for keeping troops there. The two Koreas will unite, it is just a matter of time. The form and political tone of the new country will be of significant importance to us. If we are not there we will have little influence.
Our force on the peninsula is our only mainland Asia presence. You want to surrender that. Others think we should keep it as a balance against China and as assurance for Taiwan and Japan. I agree with that position but I am willing to hear the wisdom behind your position of abandonment of our last ground position in Asia.
If the SKs don't want us there, why stay ? 35,000 troops won't make a difference to the NKs and we've signaled as much by pulling the bulk of the troops back from the DMZ. We exited Japan for the most part and it didn't self destruct. SK is sending dollars to NK to feed their army, so which side are they on ? We're not surrendering anything we own. I can see a point where we will repeat the PI experience if we overstay our welcome.
If you like scary movies see "The Exorcism of Emily Rose"-scared the *&^% out of me-my wife thinks I'm a sissy when it comes to horror movies-she's probably right.
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