The second U. S.-North Korea summit has prompted renewed talk of inter-Korean trade, but new censorship regulation in the South sets a troubling precedent that may worsen as the two neighbors grow closer.
A South Korean protester holds a defaced North Korean flag during a rally against North Korea in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 25,2019. With North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on an armored train barreling through China toward Vietnam’s capital, and U. S. President Donald Trump about to board a jet for Hanoi, Vietnamese officials scrambled Monday to finish preparation for a rushed summit that will capture global attention. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) ASSOCIATED PRESS
The North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is headed for Hanoi this week on a train reportedly “bulletproof, slow and full of wine” to meet with President Trump, who claims they both “fell in love” after Kim sent him “beautiful letters.” Unsurprisingly, analysts and even Trump’s own aides are worried about the second U. S.-North Korea summit, set to begin this Wednesday.
But South Korean President Moon Jae-in is hopeful, and is already pushing for the resumption of inter-Korean trade and other forms of economic cooperation. “Should North Korea’s economy be opened,” Moon recently said, “neighboring countries, international organizations and global funds will take part. In the process, we must not lose our leadership.”
He added, “We are the masters of our own fate on the Korean Peninsula.”
South Korea now has a higher per capita GDP than Italy, and will soon surpass New Zealand. This is thanks to education and R&D spending, and a heavy emphasis on international trade. From 1970 to 2002, the nation’s trade volume grew 17.2% annually. Export-oriented industrialization paid off, and Korea has come to its kingdom. B ut there’s a worm in the apple.
The cylinders in South Korea’s economic engine — education, R&D and trade — depend on the free flow of information. Seoul keeps a tight grip on its internet, but wants to apply an even stronger filter. The South Korean government plans to block the country’s 895 banned websites (mostly related to North Korea, gambling or pornography) by eavesdropping on Server Name Indication (SNI) data, giving censors considerably more power in a country with a long history of corruption.
Putting aside the decades of brutal dictatorship that ended with Chun Doo-hwan stepping down in 1988, every South Korean presidency since has been rocked by corruption scandals. Roh Tae-woo collected $10 million per month in slush funds while in office, Kim Young-sam stunned the nation with his pay-for-play Hanbo scandal, Roh Moo-hyun jumped off a cliff while under investigation for bribery, Lee Myung-bak is serving 15 years for corruption, Park Geun-hye is serving 24 years and then there’s President Moon Jae-in.
Last April, the Moon administration faced controversy over allegedly cutting funding for the U. S.-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies because the institute’s director was too conservative. The week before, allegations surfaced that the administration was silencing academics for criticizing its policy toward the North, including former State Department official David Straub, who was dismissed from the Sejong Institute. Also in April, North Korean defector Thae Yong-ho was silenced by National Intelligence Service agents from making critical remarks about the North.
Thae Yong-ho, a former deputy at the North Korean embassy in London, right, speaks during a news conference at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday, Feb.
