• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.23-44
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• 2021

This research attempts to provide an in-depth analysis of the public perceptions of inter-Korean economic cooperation. KDI survey data with a sample size of 1,000 were subjected to empirical analyses. By means of ordered logit estimations, we derive the following results. First, there is a significant effect of age on economic cooperation perceptions, where younger generations tend to be more negative. Second, the group who has positive view on the economic cooperation tends to prefer large-scale, domestic-entity-funded cooperation projects, whereas the group who has negative view tends to prefer small-scale projects and projects funded by international organizations. According to these results, prioritizing trade with the involvement of international organizations is likely to be an effective measure to alleviate potential political constraints and to achieve sustainable long-run economic cooperation systems when pursuing the economic cooperation.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.101-106
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• 2015

In order to minimize regional disparities between the North and the South, it is very important to reduce shortages of food and energy in North Korea in the short and mid-term. In the long term, it is important to reduce not only regional disparities between two Koreas but also regional disparities in North Korea. It is important to consider national policies of the North, the South and other countries in Northeast Asia in the process of building regional development policies for North Korea because the future of regional development in North Korea depends on policies of stakeholder in Northeast Asia. This study suggest some policy directions for regional development in North Korea. At first, building new industries, such as hi-tech industries and MICE, is important for regional development potentials in North Korea. Also, we should take some special development strategies according to regional potentials in North Korea. For example, Nampo region should be specialized through hi-tech industries. Wonsan region should be specialized through MICE. Finally, this study suggests some policy issues to the South Korean government. Financial support from South Korean government about inter-Korean economic cooperation should have priorities on the regions where have potentials of hi-tech industries and MICE. Also, we should implement inter-Korean economic cooperation policies under consideration about spatial aspects.

• Strategy21
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• s.37
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• pp.144-176
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• 2015

In September 2013, President Park Geun-hye announced her controversial "Look North" policy, of which the most salient aspect is the "Eurasia Initiative". This comprises various proposals designed to overcome existing constraints by developing new markets and creating new economic partners in continental areas from which South Korea has been alienated since the end of World War II, and this dovetails nicely with China's One Belt, One Road Initiative. The concepts of the "Silk Road Rail Express (SRX)" and the "East Sea Rim Maritime Community (ESRMC)" have also been discussed. SRX is at present a purely symbolic railroad project intended to encourage individual, cultural, trade and diplomatic exchanges. ESRMC is a model for establishing an ad hoc community to promote regional economic cooperation around the East Sea. President Park's Eurasia Initiative will provide South Korean investment for the Northeast to complement Russian plans, like the "Northern Energy Road" being built by Gazprom, and Chinese plans, like the Chang-Ji-Tu Development Plan for the North Korean port of Rajin. China's trade, as well as its energy and food supplies, pass through the Strait of Malacca and the Indian Ocean, and are thus vulnerable to interdiction by India or the US. China is therefore trying to reduce its exposure geopolitical risk by establishing a network of corridors between the Belt and the Road to provide alternative paths. The "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor" and the "China-Myanmar Economic Corridor" provide such connections, and South Korea hopes that SRX and ESRMC can become part of a "China-South Korea Economic Corridor". This concept could do much to revitalize the underdeveloped northern provinces of China and Russia's Far East, not to mention North Korea. By linking up the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Trans-China Railway, the Trans-Mongolian Railway and the Trans-Korean Railway all these Asian countries will be connected to one another, and ultimately to Europe. An interim connection between China and South Korea using a rail-ferry has also been proposed.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.30
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• pp.87-112
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• 2013

The effort to make the peaceful mood between South and North Korea that had started from so-called 'Sunshine Policy' of the People's Government since 1998, lasted until Rho Mu-hyun government. On the other hand, Lee Myung-bak government changed the policy toward North Korea to more practical and principle-oriented one than the previous two governments. By the shift of the policies, the industry of animation of South and North Korea has been influenced so much. The purpose of his study is to point out the crisis of the status of the animation industry of the Korean Peninsula through the change of the policies, and to propose one method of the new paradigm to the next government in order to build a turning point of South and North Korea animation exchange. First, the paradigms toward North Korea through the past governments are compared. Second, the result and situation of animation industry of South and North Korea are analyzed. Finally, by examining deducted problems, the forward policy toward North Korea and, by extension, the improvement direction and practical tasks of South and North Korea animation exchange policy are considered.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.155-182
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• 1997

Objectives : This study was designed to compare North Korea and South Korea in measures of the quality of life (physical quality of life index and human development index) and to investigate the impact of selected medical and socioeconomic factors on PQL variables. Data and Methods : The World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, and Population Reference Bureau were the principal sources of statistical data of 121 countries. Variables included infant mortality, life expectancy at birth, literacy rate, secondary school enrollment (male and female), GNP per capita, population per doctor, daily calorie supply per capita, and a composite PQL index. The Ordinary Least Square model was employed for cross-countries analysis. Findings : Both countries under quite different political and economic systems saw big improvememts in the quality of life, reducing mortality and prolonging life expectancy during the past three decades. In recent decad, however, North Korea has experienced abrupt exacerbation in the quality of life. Significant improvements in infant mortality of the population wer attributable mainly to GNP per capita and the secondary school enrollemt of female. The principal predictors of life expectancy at birth were population per doctor, infant mortality, and literacy rate. The secondary school enrollment of female and population per doctor were significantly associated with improvements in the physical quality of life index (PQLI). Conclusion : The results of this study confirmed a point illustrated by other studies : The association between quality of life as a measure of health status and socioeconomic factors was strong and positive. The important contribution of educational attainment in general, female education level in particular to improvements in the quality of life deserves good news for building an integrated health care system in the reunified Korea, taking into account the high level of education two koreas are enjoying. Meanwhile, when a sharp drop in the quality of life has been observed in North Korea under serious economic difficulties and food shortage in recent decade, the significant contribution of economic development to improvements in the quality of life poses bad nows for reunifying Korean health care in economic terms.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.204-211
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• 2015

This study made fundamental approaches on the significance of social enterprises on minority protection policies. In particular, it offered discussions focused on the relationship between social enterprises and North Korean defectors which greatly affect minority policies. Study results can be summed up as follows. First, the greatest difficulties for North Korean defectors in their adjustment to Korean society are economic activities and a sense of social differences and social enterprises are a policy which can resolve these problems in the most effective way. Second, existing social enterprises were excessively run by the central government and they were support models which lacked creativity and development. To resolve such problems, a lesson was learned that these must change into policy models with local coproduction. Third, a lesson was learned that social enterprises offer more than simple economic activity, offering the proper functions of society, culture, living, and language, and thus the participation of North Korean defectors in social enterprises should be made mandatory in certain sectors. Such research results will contribute to theoretically explaining the relationship between North Korean defectors and social enterprises as minority policies.

• Strategy21
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• s.44
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• pp.254-290
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• 2018

Why did Kim Jong Un turn his foreign policy upside down in a sudden? US naval blockade became one of candidates for the reason since it had been threatened by Trump administration for the first time in December 2017. Has the blockades worked well like that in the international politic history? This paper reveals the effectiveness of naval blockade on sanctioning in the peacetime. This research analyzes three hypothetical arguments about the naval blockade based on the result of empirical tests with TIES Dataset. First, sanctions by blockading are more effective in gaining political benefits than the other economic sanctions. It was ranked the 4th effective way of sanction out of 9. And 56.3% of pacific naval blockades without packaged economic sanctions were succeeded, whereas the possibility of success increase up to 61.2% when blockade has been imposed in accordance with the other type of economic sanctions. Second, blockades deter military collisions, even war. When it comes to military provocation issue, blockading sanctions gain political interest far more than the other type of economic sanctions. The possibility of the success reaches up to 74%. Also, there wasn't any historical cases of war incurred by blockading sanctions within 5 years after the blockade end. Third, policy makers just need 1.2 years on average to see the end of sanctions when they choose the naval blockade as the method of imposing sanction on the adversary. It is impressively short span of time in achieving political goal compared to the other types of sanctions which are need 9 years on average. North East Asia sea could be the next stage for a naval blockade sooner or later. Because China and Japan not only possess capabilities of blockade but also have will to impose blockades to the others if conditions are set. And even the North Korea with lots of submerging forces could be a blockading threat in the specific area. So, the Republic of Korea has to pay more attention and be prepared for naval blockading sanction.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.117-122
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• 2018

This study aims to search for policy strategies for settlement of North Korean defectors in Korean society, develop strategies based on the results and present their implications. For the purposes, this study set up a cause and effect model referring to previous bibliographical and statistical data. The results are presented as follows: First, to overcome anxiety of exposure in the defectors, personal information should be protected. Second, their psychological problems should be solved and they should be emotionally stable for better adaptation to Korean society. Third, keeping in mind that North Korean defectors are Korean people, the issue of nationality should be institutionally managed. Fourth, as one of difficulties they have is economic problems, practical support measures should be developed to solve them. Fifth, the federal government and local governments should be active in changing their recognition on them and provide the Korean community education for citizens to resolve cultural differences.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.329-352
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• 2017

Since the late 2000s Korean foreign direct investors in North Korea and China border regions have gone through the closure of outward processing trade(OPT) networks and changes in their location due to UN security council resolution and Korean independent sanctions against North Korea's nuclear and missile tests. However, the introduction of new Chinese OPT policy has led to the invigoration of domestic market-based OPT networks towards North Korea. The main aim of this paper is to identify the exceptional characteristics of Dandong in Liaoning province, a North Korea and China border region by analyzing OPT networks towards North Korea. Fundamentally the establishment of OPT networks towards North Korea is likely to be based on the utilization of a plenty of low wages in North Korea. The main reasons for this are fallen into two perspectives: geo-economics and geo-politics. The first perspective is geo-economics centering on the consolidation of economic exchange between North Korea and China, and North Korean economic development. For example, the introduction of Chinese OPT in border region has enabled Chinese local firms based on domestic market to access a plenty of low wage in North Korea in formal and institutional contexts. The second is geo-politics for the stability of North Korean regime based on the means of geo-economics. As the invigoration of domestic market-based OPT networks might make North Korea possible promoting foreign money earning, it enable North Korea to be sustainable as a buffering region between capitalist and socialist regime for China. It shows Chinese geo-strategic attempts to deal with the economic and regime stability of North Korean as a buffering state. In other words, OPT networks in North Korea should be concerned with the discourse practice of geo-economics and geo-politics which might lead to various and contingent spatial economies in border region. As a consequence, North Korea and China border regions could defined as a space in which is applicable to exceptional institutions and policies, and an exploitative space in which create surplus and rents by utilizing a plenty of low wages in North Korea through OPT networks.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.437-442
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• 2024

The unification of the Korean Peninsula is not only a national aspiration but also holds significant economic implications. By maximizing the economic synergy between South and North Korea and reconstructing the North Korean economy, balanced development across the peninsula can be promoted. However, the unification process will face various economic challenges, including the substantial costs of unification, integrating different economic systems, and bridging the economic disparity between the two Koreas. This paper aims to analyze these anticipated economic issues and propose systematic and phased solutions. Specifically, it discusses the objective estimation of unification costs and funding strategies, suggests effective integration methods for the disparate economic systems of the two Koreas, and identifies policy tasks to reduce economic disparities. The paper reviews existing studies on unification costs, explores strategies for the balanced development of South and North Korean economies through industrial restructuring and gradual transition to a market economy, and proposes concrete measures such as the expansion of North Korea's social overhead capital (SOC) and the development of human capital. The goal is to establish a solid economic foundation for peaceful unification and create opportunities for the economic resurgence of the Korean Peninsula.