Incheon and Nampo at heart of commercial and passenger sea traffic proposal as UN dials down sanctions on Pyongyang to encourage trade ties between Koreas
South Korean state enterprises’ plans for a new ferry and cruise facility at the port city of Incheon will boost commercial and passenger sea traffic between the Koreas and, eventually, China, a leading South Korean state entrepreneur said.
Hong Kyung-sun, a vice-president of Incheon Port Authority [IPA], told the South China Morning Post that his organisation is looking to connect Incheon with the North Korean port city of Nampo.
Hong was speaking after the United Nations Security Council’s approval of a plan to assess the viability of linking rail services between the two nations, exempting the study from sanctions against Pyongyang.
At three inter-Korean summits this year, President Moon Jae-in offered Seoul’s help to renovate the North’s railway network and tie it to the South’s.
Re-connecting the sea routes may be the next phase of the inter-Korean cooperation, according to Hong.
“The port authority has created a task force to study inter-Korean [marine] cooperation in preparation for a joint sea route assessment… so that we can immediately [engage with North Korea] once sanctions are lifted,” said Hong, a former aide to many congressmen with Moon’s ruling Democratic Party of Korea.
The ports study would not be the first to look at inter-Korean marine cooperation, Hong said, as the port authority had commissioned government research institutions such as the Korea Maritime Institute to carry out others.
