Unification minister nominee proposes inter-Korean public health complex

[soryang]

Lee In-young says South Korea should pursue humanitarian work and tourism with the DPRK independently of the U.S.
Jeongmin Kim July 20, 2020 NK News

South Korean unification minister nominee Lee In-young proposed that Seoul proactively engage with Pyongyang in areas like public health, food security and “independent tourism” in a memo on Sunday.

In a written response to a South Korean Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Young-ho ahead of his July 23 confirmation hearing, Lee expressed the need for the South to push forward with inter-Korean humanitarian projects “on our own” — meaning independently of the United States.

Lee also stressed the need to reconsider the scale of upcoming U.S.-ROK joint drills and outlined a number of other initiatives meant to improve soured relations with the North.

“A sustained inter-Korean cooperation is needed, without calculations in politics and national security, at least in [dealing with] food, sickness, and what people hopes to see before they die,” Lee stated.

Quite a bit more in the article. Some editing problems but informative.

https://www.nknews.org/2020/07/unification-minister-nominee-proposes-opening-inter-korean-public-health-complex/

[jmowreader]

1. The interesting thing here...

...is that the North Koreans (DPRK) and South Koreans (ROK) both desperately want to reunify.

The problem is, the DPRK refuses to accept any reunification that doesn't make the whole peninsula a communist country, and the ROK absolutely refuses to become a communist country.

[soryang]

2. The problem is that outside states have dominated Korea

Just as Germany was divided the more communication there is between the two separate systems, the less meaningful the dogmatic ideological differences become in the face of the reality that they are one people, and that the well being of the people would be materially better served with greater interaction. Economic and social behavior will inevitably result in integration.