The Roh administration is sticking to its guns on Gaeseong (Yonhap):
The South Korean government will never compromise on the issue of industrial goods produced in North Korea’s Kaesong industrial complex being considered as South Korean-made in the ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) talks with the United States, a top secretary to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said Friday.
Chung Moon-soo, a presidential economic policy advisor, said his government will never yield to Washington as far as the country-of-origin issue for South Korean products made in Kaesong is concerned.
(Interestingly, they are using the obsolete spelling of Gaeseong. Did someone at Yonhap not get the memo?)
It two government officials say almost the same thing it must be policy:
Regarding the Kaesong issue, South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong also expressed a sense of strong determination, saying, “We’ll continuously push to have the U.S. meet our demands for the Kaesong-produced goods.”
A few weeks ago, it looked like Korea might be willing to let Gaeseong go but now it once again looks like the deal breaker I said it was going to be a few weeks ago. It is too bad that a mutually beneficial trade deal is going to be stillborn because of boondoggle project that is supplementing Kim Jong-il’s financing of his “military first” policy.
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15 Comments
This is another instance of Roh’s failure to act in the best interests of South Korea due to fallacious pet theories. If the Kaesong Complex was such a good idea, why can he not convince others of its usefulness?
Though he did not use guns, Roh’s legacy will be worse than the military dictators before him, especially in accounting the long-term harm to South Korea.
I’m looking forward to the broken or discontinued link (”403 Permission Denied”) to the Yonhap piece.
But assuming all is in good order, this does not surprise me in the slightest. I have suggested weeks ago that the Gaesong products inclusion may have been a poison pill included by the Blue House so as to be able to play both sides of the fence - be “open” to international commerce while maintaining ideological orthodoxy that would certainly torpedo the FTA negotiations and thereby back his protectionist constituency.
For an economy of this size, Korea under the present administration, seems determined to act like a Third World Country - and it is not surprising Korea’s international competitiveness by various recent surveys continues to slip. All I can say it’s a damn shame, since the average Korean deserves much better than this.
I’d like to see LG, Samsung, Hyundai et al. organize some huge pro-FTA demos. After all, they’re the ones with the most to lose over this Kaesong crap.
Marmot: You up yet? Holy late night, Batman.
I’m guessing the government is spelling it “Kaesong” because, being in North Korea, they defer to North Korea’s spelling conventions. Which kind of takes away from their argument that Kaesong goods should be part of the USA-South Korea FTA.
What is the total value of goods made in Kaesong? Is it even a drop in the bucket?
That 2004 impeachment of Roh now looks like a lost opportunity.
For awhile there I though the Roh-nothings might have some real cajones in pushing a free trade deal with the US, but if it was mostly done so as to play both sides of the fence as Tom Coyner mentions, or to force Gaesong into the deal, then his government really has not accomplished anything whatsoever. The messes and screw-ups far outweigh the successes (what successes?).
I saw an item in the local Konglish press yesterday, though, quoting a member of the government - I think it may have been the new MOFE - to the effect that ROKGOV may cave on the Kaesong issue in order to get the FTA. I’ll see if I can find it again. In the meantime, it’s unclear what this portends, if true. A split between the technocrats and Roh-nothing ideologues? A ploy in a strategy of trying to trade away Kaesong for some substantive concession from the US for other Korean interests nearer and dearer, e.g., farmers (unlikely); pharma, services, or anything where Korea wants to continue playing the game of protecting the local sector until it’s strong enough not only to effectively close out foreign competition in the local market but also to thus (using the local market as a springboard, get a subsidized leg up in int’l markets. That at any rate is the game the technos are playing. The ideologues don’t want an FTA and are playing this to be able to blame the US both for frustrating Korean desires for unification by rejecting Kaesong and for the failure of the FTA negos because of its obstinence on that issue.
Sometimes it’s difficult to get your head around with some Korean officials. Why do they want the goods made in North Korea recognized as made in (South) Korea?
If SK could include NK products in a US-SK FTA, there would be nothing stopping them from including PRC made items managed by SKoreans. Stupid. Maybe the U.S. should include some Mexican items?
What do you expect from Rho government formed from former anti-American student activists?
They are not interested in making Korea advance in the world. They just want to enforce their 40-year old (formed from pro-North literature in 1960s) ideology.
It’s such a ludicrous demand, it makes you realize that South Koreans don’t negotiate all that differently from North Koreans. (Except when the South Koreans are negotiating WITH the North Koreans.)
Richardson (#9),
In defense of the Roh administration, they do have an argument for Gaeseong that does not apply to ROK-run factories in China. Under the ROK constitution, all of Korea is legally part of the ROK. So Gaeseong-made products are technically made in the ROK.
Of course, in this case, law and reality are entirely different things and that argument will not fly with the Americans.
Another problem is that, with the Roh administration’s engagement policies, they would have a hard time bringing themselves to even make that argument since it would certainly ruffle feathers in Pyongyang.
Roh doesn’t take that part of the constitution very seriously otherwise, does he? Referring to Kim Jong Il as National Defense Council Chairman (= implicitly recognizing NK as separate 국 or nation), granting ROK citizenship only to a tiny portion of NK refugees etc. There have even been stirrings among the pro-NK crowd to change that part of the constitution.
In any case, the constitutional argument only points up the danger of creating a precedent with Kaesong; SK would then be free to enter business with the NK army, prison camp commanders etc to produce things and sell them in the US.
It is all over Korean Newspaper that Rho called Hu and talked about 30 minutes about the recent UN security counsel resolution. The following is my take on what went down.
Rho: Venerable Chairman Hu, I think the US is too aggressive for the region. I do not understand why you agree to the resolution.
Hu: (I have to eat too) Well, the US was very insistent on it and I gave the US to save face.
Rho: But, isn’t it destablizing the region?
Hu: (Who cares about the region? I have to sell stuffs to the US) Well, it does seem so.
Rho: We are Asians. We have to fight against white men.
Hu: (Are you still in 19th century? WTF. China has to raise its living standard. We won’t bite the hand that feeds.) Well, things are not that simple.
…
Rho: I think China and Korea should band together to fight Japan.
Hu: (You are a president of a small country. I do not like your mentioning “China and Korea” as if Korea carries any weight.) Yeah, we should.
Rho: I am afraid Japan may re-arm and attack Korea.
Hu: (Why should I care? China has to get rich, even if it takes stepping on Korea) That is a big concern for China as well.
Rho: I do not understand KJI. Why did he shoot missiles?
Hu: ( I told him to shoot) Well, I do not understand him either. (I don’t fugging understand you. How are you going to defend your country after losing only ally, America, you have? Fugging idot, that is what you are) We should tell KJI to tone it down.
Rho: Thank you, sir. I know if we can work together, we can bring some sense to KJI.
Hu: (It is you who needs some common sense. KJI is doing fine following my orders. If you bite the only friend you have, who will be your friend? Not me. Not KJI. We will kill your kind first when we enter Seoul) We should work together in the future. However, you must understand China takes the lead in Asia.
Rho: Ye..Yes sir. China is a big country and Korea is a small country. That is why I call you whenever we have big situation in Asia, sir.
..
Fugging A.