통일경제특구 조성과 활성화를 위한 입법방안 연구

Abstract

The bill for the Unification Special Economic Zone, initiated by Hyun-mi Kim, Seong-won Kim, and Cheol-won Hong, is currently pending in the 20th National Assembly. The bill aims to create an industrial complex in the border area of North Korea in the South that will be linked to Kaesong Industrial Zone. The bill is aimed at mitigating various regulations, assuring autonomy and investment incentives for economic activities, promoting economic profits and cooperation between South Korea and North Korea, and creating a peaceful economic zone between South Korea and North Korea. Therefore, these bills are very important for establishing economic cooperation and peaceful unification between South Korea and North Korea, so it is necessary to examine the issues that may be problematic in advance. In this paper, we reviewed the current 「Special Act on Free Economic Zones」 and the legislation, and examined the possibility of restarting the Kaesong Industrial Complex, which has been shut down. To summarize this briefly, the first is to establish a Unification Special Economic Zone committee under the Prime Minister for the operation of the Special Economic Zone, to establish a practical administrative department in the Ministry of Unification, to establish a local administrative agency in the Unification Special Economic Zone. Second, the 「Unification Special Economic Zone bill」 should be stipulated in the same way as Article 3 of the 「Special Act on Free Economic Zones」 in order to comply with the ranking of the national land management planning system of the current law. Third, provisions on the preservation of cultural properties should be stipulated in the 「Unification Special Economic Zone bill」. Fourth, since the term “bordering area” is defined in the 「BORDER AREA SUPPORT ACT」, it is desirable to legislate as “bordering area” rather than “North Korea's neighboring area”. Fifth, since the name of 'Special Economic Zone for Peaceful Unification', 'Unification Special Economic Zone', and 'North and South Korea Unification Special Economic Zone' can give an image of absorption unification, it is better to change the name to “Special Economic Zone for Economic Cooperation of North and South Korea(tentative name).” In order to restart the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the South Korean government should persuade the international community for the following reasons. First, commercial transactions between South Korea and North Korea in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex are not to contribute to the development of North Korea's nuclear weapons and the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, but to contribute to the living costs of the poor North Koreans. The second is to play a role as a bridgehead for achieving peace and unification between South Korea and North Korea. The third is an inevitable act to bring about changes in the North Korean social and economic system. In this way, the South Korean government should make a lot of political and diplomatic efforts to obtain the prior approval from the UN Security Council for the restart of the Kaesong Industrial Complex.