Plans for a ‘Peace City’

A short blurb in the Chosun Ilbo about Peace City.  I’ve never heard of the ‘Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements’.  They sound terribly important and lofty.  This, like the ‘Eco Peace Park’, could go either of two ways.  It could actually be really cool, honoring the history and providing an opportunity for real education.  Or it could be a commercial mess of Disney proportions, where rich people buy eco Chanel bags.  But probably, it’ll be both crassly commercial, and somberly educational.

Plans for ‘Peace City’ Complex to be Built Near DMZ

Under the new balanced regional development policy by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, plans are underway to build a common development and international peace zone in the area around the DMZ.

The peace complex proposal will be presented to the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements by November 2009, after which a feasibility study will be conducted.

Depending on progress in inter-Korean relations construction could begin after the year 2011.

Fashion Show in the DMZ Proposed

The Miss World Pageant may be held in South Korea in 2009.  And it’s being promoted as an event that would cultivate peace, and maybe even get North Korea to participate in the contest.

One of the events would be a fashion show in the DMZ, or, most likely, near it.

Here’s the key excerpt, and the link for the rest of the Korea Times article.

He pointed out that if Korea gets to host the pageant, it couldn’t serve better the purpose of promoting hope and peace.

The committee, established last year, has an ambitious plan: to get North Korea involved in Miss World in (South) Korea.

Jenny Thorn, a Miss World Korea representative, said the committee has in mind a plan to host a fashion show in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the sidelines of the main final show, which would be a tremendously influential window for North Koreans to see the world and vice versa.

“We can promote North Korea to the world. And who knows? We might start Miss North Korea?” Thorn said.

The ambassador agreed. “It will build a bridge in creating better atmosphere between South and North Korea.

Activist Balloonist in a Scuffle

The DMZ as a site of protest. A North Korean refugee attempted to launch balloons filled with leaflets denouncing Kim Jong Il. There were counter-protesters, and it got a little violent. But most of the violence seems to have been initiated by the leafletter.

I guess if i was a North Korean, fed a steady diet of Kim Jong Il worship my whole life, and later found what a repressive buffoon he actually was, then I’d be pissed off too. Desperate, even, to tell all the other North Koreans still stuck there, about the truth.

However, there’s no excuse for kicking people on the head, or threatening to shoot tear gas. Here’s some of the article from the Washington Post.

PAJU, South Korea, Dec. 2 — Park Sang Hak, a North Korean defector, launches balloons bound for his homeland. They carry leaflets accusing North Korean leader Kim Jong Il of being a drinker of pricey wine, a seducer of other men’s wives, a murderer, a slaveholder, a dictator and “the devil.”

The South Korean government says it wishes Park wouldn’t rain all this provocation on a heavily armed neighbor, but it says it is powerless to stop him. So about the only thing that usually stops Park’s balloons is a wind that won’t blow north.

But on Tuesday morning here at Paju, near the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas, Park and his compatriots ran into a bunch of South Korean activists willing to fight to keep the balloons on the ground. Park’s anti-Kim leaflets, they shouted, were a threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Borders Closed

It’s official. The North Koreans halted the largely ceremonial freight train that shuttled between the Koreas, and shut down the Kaesong tours. But strangely enough, 1,200 of the 4,200 South Koreans were allowed to keep their border passes, thus letting them continue working in Kaesong.

So the net result of this border closing is:

• No longer using a train that really wasn’t used to transport goods. It was cheaper to do it by trucks. It was a symbolic daily ritual.
• Ceasing a tour that dangerously allowed wealthy South Koreans to be exposed to impoverished North Koreans in a real North Korean city.
• Fewer South Koreans allowed to work in Kaesong, but operations mostly intact, since this has been such an important source of cash for the North Koreans

Therefore, not much has changed except for the North Koreans creating pretexts to stop two activities they have wanted to stop all year.

More info from this Reuters article.

Kaesong City Tours

As December 1 approaches, and North Korea’s threat to close the border nears, there have been an increasing number of articles about Kaesong, the ancient Korean capital that is in North Korea. This AP article describes some of the details of the tour that would cease.

Along with the observations of the strict restrictions placed on tourists, are such tidbits as how much the tour costs (surprising cheap at about $100, with the recent devaluation of the won, which includes lunch), about the shops and sites that are accessible to the tourists. After the jump to read the article.

North Korea to Halt Border Crossings

North Korea has threatened to close the border on Dec. 1. Their main beef has been pamphleteering by South Korean organizations into the North. And they’ve just been grumpy in general ever since the election of Lee Myung Bak to the South Korean presidency.

The primary impacts would be:

• A probable shutdown of the Kaesong industrial complex in North Korea.
• No more South Korean tourists visiting Kaesong, an ancient capital city.
• Cutting off phone links inside Panmunjom, the village inside the DMZ, and the main point of communication between the Koreas.

There are two possible outcomes:

• The South Korean government places restrictions on groups from leafleting before December and the North Koreans keep the border open.
• Or the border is closed for a few weeks to show those South Koreans who’s boss. Then they’ll be reopened because the cash from the factories and the tour groups are important sources of national income.

My money’s on the 2nd outcome. We’ll see on December 1.

DMZ Ecosystem Study Commences

The regional governments got approval from the military to conduct research in the DMZ, from KBS Global.

1st Study on DMZ Ecosystem to Begin Mon.

The first comprehensive inspection on the ecosystem of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) will begin next week.

The Environment Ministry said Sunday that a joint team comprising some 20 officials from the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea and the Korea Forest Service will inspect six districts and cities, to gather information on the DMZ’s topography and animal habitats.

The five-day study will seek to provide an outline of measures on preserving the DMZ’s ecosystem. The ministry plans to use gathered data from the reserach on creating an ecological park near the heavily fortified zone and request UNESCO designation of the area as a biosphere reserve by 2012.

The ministry had been negotiating with the Defense Ministry and the U.N. Command since 2006 to conduct the inspection, and got a permit to do so in September.