남북경협 활성화를 위한 북한의 법제 개선방향

Abstract

National attention is rising as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the removal of South Korean-built facilities at the Mount Geumgang Resort on October 23, 2019. As two Koreas entered a thaw in relations since the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics held in February 2018, the inter-Korean summit took place at the Inter-Korean House of Freedom on the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area (April 27, 2018) and announced the Panmunjeom Declaration. Amid a dramatic change in situations of the Northeast Asian region and especially as the Northeast Asia has emerged as a promising investment area with strong growth potential since the 1990s, those countries have announced their own development policy, focusing their physical and human resources on it. Even though Pyongyang is still under punitive sanctions for conducting nuclear tests and firing missiles, this study assumed that inter-Korean economic cooperation becomes possible as the UN and international communities ease sanctions on the North. It discussed how to improve North Korean laws to vitalize inter-Korean economic cooperation, and also dealt with the conflict of laws regarding inter-Korean cooperation as well as how to amend and improve North Korean laws if South Korea establishes a tentatively-named 'Unified Special Economic Zone Law.' Therefore, timely analysis of North Korean laws is needed to establish the appropriate legal and institutional infrastructure. It is also required to provide the North with support for legislation and laws to induce a continued change of laws. This study is expected to promote the vitalization of inter-Korean economic cooperation.