hankyoreh

The Tuman River as seen from Fangchuan Observation Tower in China. In the distance, past the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, the river leads to the East Sea. For 16.93 kilometers, the river forms the border between North Korea and Russia, excluding China from access to the sea. (Lee Je-hun/Hankyoreh)

During his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Jan. 5, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung reportedly proposed four major inter-Korean and international cooperation projects, including the Greater Tumen Initiative, aimed at improving inter-Korean relations and promoting cooperation in the region, while asking for Beijing’s cooperation and for it to play a mediating role. 

It’s a meaningful development, since it formalizes as a summit-level agenda the vision for cooperation that the Lee administration has been cooking up since taking office. However, there remain many obstacles on this path, including the issue of lifting sanctions on North Korea. 

We hope that the Lee administration starts small with easy, feasible projects to discourage the perception that the Lee administration is obsessed with massive projects that do not consider objective realities regarding international geopolitics, such as the freeze in inter-Korean relations. 
 
Based on comments by several anonymous senior government officials, the Hankyoreh reported that during their summit on Jan. 5,  Lee proposed four major projects for cooperation, including the construction of a high-speed railway linking Seoul, Pyongyang, and Beijing; peace tourism in the Wonsan-Kalma resort; inter-Korean health care cooperation; and South Korea’s inclusion in the Greater Tumen Initiative. 

On Jan. 6, Lee met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, effectively China’s No. 2, and made the same proposal. Lee reportedly requested China’s cooperation and mediation. 

According to reports, Xi said it was a “good proposal,” but reminded Lee that China’s current influence on North Korea is limited due to the extreme deterioration of inter-Korean relations, and said that “patience” would be necessary. 

Both health care cooperation, which is a humanitarian project, and peaceful tourism to the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist zone that opened in July are areas that are either exempt from sanctions or not subject to them, meaning that all that’s needed to pursue them is an agreement between South and North Korea. 

However, building a high-speed railway linking Seoul, Pyongyang and Beijing represents a massive development project that would require enormous amounts of investment in North Korea from both South Korea and China. Such a massive project would require the lifting of sanctions on North Korea — which itself will require solving the problem posed by the country’s nuclear weapons program. Ultimately, it will necessitate four-party talks between South and North Korea, the US and China — meaning both Xi and US President Donald Trump have to get involved.  

The last project in Lee’s proposal, the Greater Tumen Initiative, will require Russian involvement, meaning it would have to happen after the end of its war with Ukraine. 

In this light, it’s clear which projects are a priority and which must be reserved for down the road. In a report issued by the Unification Ministry on Dec. 19, the Lee administration indicated that it is preparing “comprehensive health care cooperation initiatives, including infectious disease response and modernizing county-level hospitals.”

The report also stated that they would pursue “the resumption of tourism to Mt. Kumgang in coordination with international peace tourism in the Wonsan-Kalma resort region.”

There was no mention of the other two projects that Lee proposed to Xi. The most urgent tasks are smoothly resolving the incident involving North Korean claims of drones intruding on their airspace and rebuilding trust between Seoul and Pyongyang.

To avoid getting ahead of ourselves, we must make preparations and proceed slowly but surely from the ground up.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]