'Uneasy bedfellow'

As tensions are mounting over how to handle defiant North Korea, the US government shows its uneasiness over inter-Korean economic cooperation including Kaesung industrial park and Mt. Keumkang tour. Mt. Keumkang tour is the biggest money supplier to North Korea which is believed to receive about $1 m every month. Except for labor costs, the North pocketed $12m in land lease and construction through the project of Kaesung Industrial park.

The Korean government is reluctant to scrap its inter-Korean economic projects, not least because it can not only deal a terrible blow to the North Korean economy, which has been already suffering greatly from financial sanctions imposed by the US, but also devastate some Korean companies involved in the project such as Hyundai Asan.

But western experts criticize the measures taken by Seoul after the missile launch, saying that Seoul shouldn’t have cut off rice and fertilizer provision which could have helped ordinary North Korean people while it continues the economic projects that provide money directly to the pocket of Kim Jong-il regime.

For its part, President Roh Moo-hyun vents his own frustration over fissure with his most important ally, the US. He said yesterday of possible measures by the US and Japan to impose further sanctions on North Korea, “I don’t think excessive response and unnecessarily heightened tension will be helpful to solve the problems,” indicating he is opposed to the moves by the both countries.