China can provide platform to aid growth of inter-Korea trade

By Mei Xinyu Source:Global Times Published: 2015-7-29 23:28:01

Hwang Jin-ha, chairman of South Korea's parliamentary defense committee, suggested earlier this month that China consider providing a "nuclear umbrella" to North Korea to help resolve the country's nuclear issue. The suggestion has attracted wide attention.

No matter the feasibility of the suggestion, it indicates that Seoul wants to ease the tensions in the Korean Peninsula and is willing to explore fresh approaches that depend more on China. The sealing of the Iran nuclear deal may have also produced expectations and pressure within South Korea.

In this context, economic and trade cooperation plays an irreplaceable role in thawing tensions in Northeast Asia.

In East Asia where rapid economic growth has become the norm, North Korea's long-term exclusion is neither normal nor conducive to the stable and continuous economic development in the region. Countries have to engage North Korea in economic and trade cooperation in a deeper and wider manner.

Under the condition of no turmoil in the neighborhood, China is willing to see progress in regional economic and trade cooperation. As the largest economy in the region and the world's biggest trading country, China is a suitable hub and platform for boosting economic and trade development.

Given the bumpy trajectory of inter-Korean ties, pushing ahead economic cooperation among China, North Korea and South Korea on the platform provided by China will help to break the ice in the peninsula.

China has maintained friendly relations with both North and South Korea and the largest trading partner of the two. Trading with China used to make up nearly 90 percent of North Korea's foreign trade and tens of thousands of people from North Korea study and live in China.

The number of North Koreans entering China jumped from 76,000 in 2000 to 207,000 in 2013, and although it fell to 184,000 in 2014, this is still higher than 181,000 in 2012.

Meanwhile, China and South Korea have seen ever more frequent exchanges. Between 2000 and 2014, the number of South Korean citizens entering China rose from 1.34 million to 4.18 million. The free trade agreement inked by the two sides earlier this year can promote the economic and trade relations and facilitate South Korea conducting economic and trade activities with North Korea.

While in South Korea there is intrinsic demand for better ties with the North, the two sides which regard each other as arch enemies are in a stalemate over economic and trade cooperation, with little progress in three programs.

The Mount Kumgang tour was suspended in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot dead a female tourist from the South and Pyongyang scrapped a deal with Seoul's Hyundai Asan company, the resort's developer. The train service connecting the two sides was suspended in November that year, and a squabble over a pay raise put the Kaesong Industrial Complex in an impasse. Due to the wage fight, South Korean enterprises have become well aware of the risk of investing in the complex and will unlikely to increase their investment there significantly in the foreseeable future.

South Korea needs other means to improve its economic and trade ties with the North, and China, the largest trading partner of both, is a viable option. For South Korea, joining China's trade with North Korea and hence promoting its ties with the latter is a desirable goal. For North Korea, advancing its foreign trade through China can help reduce potential risks and gain more benefits.

The author is a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn



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