with 

Han Song Ryol
Deputy Permanent Representative of the DPRK to the United Nations

Monday, October 31, 2005

The Korea Society hosted a meeting of the advisory council of the Korea Economic Institute that featured a luncheon address by Han Song Ryol, the deputy permanent representative of the DPRK to the United Nations. In his address, Han stressed that the pervasive hostility in the U.S.-DPRK relationship is a result of the fact that both sides possess nuclear weapons and not vice versa. He noted that the DPRK ultimately would like to reach an agreement with the U.S. similar to the 1994 Agreed Framework, but it is concerned that if an agreement were to be reached the U.S. would then "move the goalposts" by predicating any further improvement in ties on the achievement of progress on other issues such as human rights and conventional arms reduction. In the Q&A session following Han's address, the issue of the DPRK's stance on electricity aid was raised by one of the advisory council members. Citing the DPRK's consistent demand for the delivery of LWRs in exchange for denuclearization, the questioner wondered how this demand could be squared with the urgent need in the DPRK for a stable electricity supply. Considering that LWRs wouldn't be able to generate the necessary electricity for years, the questioner noted, it is difficult to understand why the DPRK has been less than enthusiastic about South Korea's offer to run power lines over the DMZ since this approach would make the needed electricity available much sooner. Han replied that his government is focused on the LWR option because the country has an abundant domestic supply of uranium. He also added that the DPRK has many Soviet-trained nuclear engineers, and building a power system around any other source would be unfair to them. Asserting interest in the potential for democratization in the DPRK, another questioner inquired who would assume power in the country after Kim Jong-Il has passed from the scene. With a wry smile, Han replied that he was tasked with explaining his country’s external affairs and couldn't comment on internal developments. Pressed to give his personal view of U.S. policy, Han replied, "As I've emphasized, I want to see the hostility [between our countries] brought to an end...if we want to have better feelings on both sides, we have to look forward and leave the past behind."

with

Seo Jung Uck
Head, e-trade Promotion Committee, Korean International Trade Association (KITA)
Former Minister of Science and Technology

Friday, June 24, 2005

As a former minister of science and technology, who played a major role in fostering the development of the IT industry in South Korea, and the current head of the e-trade promotion committee at the Korean International Trade Association (KITA), Seo Jung Uck is preeminently qualified to explain the industry's remarkable achievements in his country. He also has a knack for making the explanation easy to understand: "To change your community, you have to abruptly change your way of thinking." Addressing a luncheon forum audience at The Korea Society, Seo illustrated his point by relaying his experiences in the 1980s when he was part of a team charged with expanding South Korea's telephone network. He and his colleagues at that time were confronted with a momentous choice. Should they start building the network from big cities out into the countryside, or start building from rural areas and work inwards? The conventional approach was to start from big cities, but a decision was made to start instead from the countryside. Due to the structured, comprehensive phone network that had been laid down in the 1980s, some years later it was feasible to build fiber optic networks on top of the system with relatively little effort. Then, in the 1990s, Seo became involved in creating South Korea's mobile phone network. In this case, the choice was between going with the widely-used GSM cellular standard or using the superior, but unproven, CDMA technology. Again, a decision was made to take a gamble and build the mobile infrastructure around CDMA. As a result, companies like Samsung were able to build their products around this more advanced technology and to take the lead in the world market. Seo's point in relaying these critical gambles was that innovative planning was every bit as important as sophisticated engineering to the successful development of South Korea's tech sector.

New Paradigm for South-North Korean Cooperation: The Incheon-Kaesong Joint Development Zone

with

Ahn Sang-Soo
Mayor, Incheon Korea

Donald P. Gregg
President and Chairman, The Korea Society

Roh Jeong-Ho
Former Director, Korean Legal Center, Columbia Law School

Shin Hyun-Yoon
Professor of Law, Yonsei University

Seo Jung Uck
Former ROK Minister of Science and Technology

Thursday, June 23, 2005

The "trickle down" theory might be economically dubious, but there's something to it where inter-Korean dialog and cooperation are concerned. Addressing an audience of law school students and Korea experts at Columbia University, Ahn Sang-Soo, mayor of Incheon, outlined his unique efforts to use local administration to reach out to North Korea. Until recently, he noted, policies governing rapprochement with the North were initiated exclusively by the central government in Seoul. But following a visit by a DPRK delegation to Incheon in 2004, Ahn set the wheels in motion for engagement efforts initiated the level of local government. In May 2005 Ahn led a first-of-its-kind municipal delegation to Pyongyang. While there, he floated the idea of creating a new joint development zone that would stretch across the DMZ, encompassing Kaesong's new industrial facilities and Incheon's logistical base. If Kaesong's labor cost advantages were wedded to Incheon's port and airport, he argued, the combined area would have an enviable advantage in the export market. He also raised the prospect of establishing a bridge across the DMZ that could get Kaesong's goods to Incheon faster. Ahn told the audience that he would eventually like to see the joint development zone expand into a "golden peace triangle" that would draw Seoul's financial resources and educated entrepreneurs into the economic equation. Any actual development of this concept may be years away, he noted, but the fact remains that the two sides of the divided Korea did take an initial trust-building step. While in Pyongyang, Ahn also signed an agreement with his North Korean counterparts to enter a joint Incheon/Pyongyang bid for the 2014 Asian Games. Donald P. Gregg, president and chairman, The Korea Society, Roh Jeong-Ho, the then director of the Korean Legal Center, Columbia Law School, Shin Hyun-Yoon, professor of law, Yonsei University, and Seo Jung Uck, former ROK minister of science and technology, provided commentary on Mayor Ahn's address. This forum was cosponsored with the Center for Korean Legal Studies at Columbia Law School and the Center for American Legal Studies at Yonsei University's College of Law.

with

Bill Woo
Director, Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone (BJFEZ)

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Officials from the Busan Port Authority (BPA) were making their first foray into North America when they spoke to business leaders from the shipping, logistics and finance industries at the Waldor Astoria Hotel in New York, and the message they brought was just as fresh. Busan-already Asia's fifth largest port by volume and the second largest city in Korea-is undergoing a surge of new development, and American investors can ride the rising tide by getting in now on the newly created Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone (BJFEZ). The impetus behind Busan's growth is the South Korean government's goal of transforming the country from a low-cost manufacturing center to a knowledge-based financial and logistics hub for Northeast Asia. Towards that end, the BPA is backing the construction of new harbor berths capable of handling the largest cargo vessels on earth and a massive new distribution park, among other improvements. Foreign businesses that pour capital into new Busan operations will receive a 100-percent tax break for the first two years they're in business, and 50-percent breaks for the next three years. Bill Woo, director of the BJFEZ, ticked off additional benefits of locating in Busan for attendees before the forum closed-including new international hospitals and schools as well as the harmonious labor relations between management and dockworkers. As far as he was concerned, he said, the BJFEZ is "the rising sun of Northeast Asia." This program was organized by BPA, BJFEZ and the Korea International Trade Association. The Korea Society was one three supporting organizations.