South Korean President Lee Myung-bak yesterday urged North Korea to end its military provocations and make a “courageous change” as he laid out a long-term plan for reunification.
“It is about time Pyongyang looked straight at reality, made a courageous change and came up with a drastic decision,” Lee said.
The Koreas “need to overcome the current state of division and proceed with the goal of peaceful reunification,” he said in a speech to celebrate Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.
Lee also warned that South Korea would not tolerate any military provocations from North Korea.
“The North must never venture to carry out another provocation nor will we tolerate it if they do so again,” he said.
Cross-border tensions have been high since late May when South Korea and the US accused Pyongyang of attacking a South Korean warship.
The North, which vehemently denies the accusation, threatened retaliation after US and South Korean troops staged naval drills in a show of force.
Relations further worsened after North Korea last weekend seized a South Korean squid fishing boat operating off the east coast.
The North also fired an artillery barrage into waters in the Yellow Sea a week ago when South Korea wrapped up its biggest anti-submarine drill.
In his speech, Lee detailed a multi-step blueprint for reunification, starting with a “peace community” after the peninsula is cleared of nuclear weapons.
The next step is to dramatically develop the North’s economy and form an “economic community in which the two will work for economic integration,” he said.
Finally, the Koreas would be able “to remove the wall of different systems” and establish a community which will ensure “dignity, freedom and basic rights of all individuals,” he said.
REUNIFICATION TAX
“Through this process, we can ultimately bring about the peaceful unification of Korea,” he added.
North Korea didn’t immediately respond to Lee’s reunification proposal, but issued a warning that its military would be “merciless” in its retaliation against joint military exercises planned this week by South Korea and the US.
Lee also proposed a “reunification tax” to help fund the expected US$1 trillion bill when the two Koreas eventually rejoin.
There are no signs that North and South Korea are anywhere near close to reconciliation, with about 1 million soldiers facing off across the Cold War’s last great divide.
“Reunification will definitely come,” Lee said in the speech. “I believe that the time has come to start discussing realistic policies to prepare for that day such as a reunification tax.”
Lee said it was now time to start saving for the massive cost of reuniting with the North, whose economy has been driven close to ruin by central economic planning, heavy military expenditure and years of famine.
North Korea is an economic backwater, with annual GDP of about US$24 billon last year — less than 3 percent the size of the South’s economy.
By some estimates, it would cost more than US$1 trillion to absorb the North.
That could wreak havoc on South Korea’s economy, with a state-funded research agency saying it would raise the tax bill for South Koreans by the equivalent of 2 percentage points annually for 60 years.
Opinion polls, however, show more than 60 percent of South Koreans want unification, but they would prefer it happen later rather than sooner because of the cost.
Lee, who is halfway through his single five-year term, has advocated a hard-line approach toward Pyongyang unlike his liberal predecessors.
RESPONSE TO JAPAN
He has cut aid to a trickle and all but cut off investment in North Korea after Pyongyang conducted a second nuclear test and test-fired long range missiles last year.
In his biggest Cabinet reshuffle a week ago, Lee kept his foreign, defense and unification ministers in place, signaling little change in his policy.
Lee welcomed Japan’s efforts to improve ties, but said some issues had yet to be resolved.
“I have taken note of Japan’s effort, which represents one step forward,” he said.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who has sought stronger ties with South Korea, issued a fresh apology on Tuesday for colonial rule and promised to hand over precious Korean cultural artifacts.
Lee praised Kan for issuing an apology.
“However, there still remain issues that have to be resolved. The two countries are called upon to take concrete measures to forge a new relationship for another 100 years,” he said, without elaborating.
The two countries normalized relations in 1965, but Japan has often been criticized by its neighbors for glossing over wartime atrocities.
Also See: US, S Korea plan second exercise
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS