그린데탕트와 남북산림협력의 의미와 가능성 연구

Abstract

Green detente refers to ‘achieving the tension relief and peace through the cooperation between South and North Korea in the field of environment.’ Green detente is significant in that it tries to resolve the inter-Korean relationship through environmental cooperation; a non political method. Environmental cooperation is evaluated as a positive way that can serve as a decisive turning point in improving inter-Korean relations, as the necessity and importance of environmental protection over national borders have been recently highlighted. The environment is a field where mutual cooperation begins naturally and where there is high possibility that cooperation can be expanded to other fields such as politics and military. Green detente, the field in which the government expresses its interest, includes such projects as cooperative research activities on the border areas and the DMZ and utilization of their outcomes; projects on flood protection and water quality improvement, agricultural cooperation and devastated forest restoration and so on. While such projects are evaluated to have a meaning as the base for realizing mutual development and environmental community, there exist different views on the terms of North Korea’s acceptability, possibility of reaching an agreement between the two Koreas and its feasibility. Among them, the area of forest cooperation shows a high possibility of North Korea’s acceptance, in consideration of the current deforestation situation in North Korea, North Korea’s expressing its enhanced will to restore the forest, and the forest’s closeness to public livelihood. What also heightens the possibility of realizing the green detente is that it has wide options ranging from supporting tree planting, building tree nurseries, and protecting forests, to the activation of forest village’s economy, so that pragmatic and sensible solutions which suit the site’s situation can be provided.