[USFK Forums] South spends double as North paves Paektu [JoongAng]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Sunday, January 22, 2006

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South spends double as North paves Paektu

January 21, 2006 ㅡ The Unification Ministry is again facing criticism over its laxness toward North Korea, after announcing yesterday it would provide 4.8 billion won ($4.8 million) to repair and complete a project on Mount Paektu on which it has already spent 4.98 billion won. Of that, 2 billion won is to repair faulty construction by North Korean workers, carried out without clear specifications of what the South expected for its contribution.

According to the Unification Ministry yesterday, the Korea Tourism Organization and Hyundai Asan of South Korea agreed last July to provide financial support for a paving project on Mount Paektu, with their North Korean counterpart, the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee. The money was given on condition that North Korea allow South Korean tourists to twice a year visit the mountain on the Chinese border, which many Koreans value highly. The South Korean government used 4.98 billion won from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund and delivered 8,000 tons worth of pitch, or asphalt, to the North.

However, the contract only stated the amount and timing of the financial support, without stating what was to be paved, or giving South Korea supervision rights. The Unification Ministry could only check on the construction last December, when it found a badly-constructed runway.

A Unification Ministry official said, “As the runway has holes here and there, a plane bigger than middle-size cannot taxi on it.” He added, “North Korea used the pitch provided by the South in building a taxiway, which it was supposed to use only in road construction, leading to the faulty construction.” Some critics also suspect North Korea may have misappropriated the asphalt. South Korea, however, has no way to check that suspicion.

As the contract was signed one month after then-Unification Minister Chung Dong-young met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, critics say the South Korean government was moving hastily without scrutinizing the contract to further greater inter-Korean exchange.


by Chae Byung-gun



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