Political and business leaders are waiting for the second Trump-Kim summit, which is set to take place in Vietnam. In anticipation of the summit, some South Korean business owners are pushing for a restoration and potential expansion of economic ties with the North. If you’re wondering which ties they are hoping to restore, you can reasonably start in the Kaesong industrial complex.
The Kaesong industrial complex was formed back in 2002 as part of efforts to improve economic cooperation between North and South Korea. The complex was shut down in 2016 amid worsening relations between the two governments. However, many business owners believe that reconciliation is not only possible, but inevitable, and are thus prepared to get back to work in the Kaesong industrial region. The region used to be a directly governed city that provided a rare glimpse into what cooperation between the two countries could look like. The South provided managerial expertise and the necessary investment to kick the project off, while the North primarily provided labor.
Increased economic cooperation on the Korean Peninsula could potentially bring the two countries closer together. People on both sides of the dispute share a common history before the Korean War, and speak the same language. The prospect of Korean unification if still far-fetched, but increased cooperation is in both countries’ economic interests.
South Korea is currently one of the richest countries in Asia, while North Korea is one of the poorest. South Korean money is regularly invested across Asia, but given the opportunity they would happily invest closer to home. The benefits of doing so include moving the Korean peninsula closer to unification, or at the very least having people from both sides of the divide working side by side.
