"PATH FOR SEOUL'S SUNSHINE POLICY"

My friend, John, has a good op-ed in The Korea Times. Check it out if you're interested in North Korea issues:

The Kaesong Industrial Complex is the current embodiment of Seoul's sunshine policy towards the North. While Kaesong, strategically located north of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, is symbolically important, the massive scale that is envisaged in the coming years is unlikely to be realized in North Korea. Pyongyang’s concerns about political contamination will, in practice, limit the growth of inter-Korean economic development projects. Seoul’s vision of closer integration between the two Koreas, however, can be realized in northeastern China.

While the North Korean nuclear crisis drags on with placebo-like six-party talks meetings that are once again in limbo, a promising way for Seoul to implement integration with the North has emerged during a different set of gatherings in Beijing. While the focus of the recent Chinese National People's Congress’ (NPC) 11th Five-Year Development Program was the reduction of the growing gap on the mainland between those benefiting immensely from China’s economic growth and those increasingly left behind, an unintended potential beneficiary is South Korea and its sunshine policy. (full article)