A Study on the Promotion of Environmental-friendly Economic Cooperation Between North and South Korea

The main purpose of this study is to analyze potential areas of North and South Korea's economic cooperation, the their possible environmental impacts, and to figure out the environmentally-friendly ways and methods of economic cooperation.
Over 50 years, Korean peninsula has been divided into two nations; North and South Koreas. And the two Koreas have maintained hostile relationship politically and economically until the late 1990s. June 15, 2001, President Kim Dae-jung visited Pyeongyang, to hold a summit meeting with North Korean president Kim Jeong-il opening new era for Korean history.
The summit meeting has brought new expectation on economic co-operation between South and North. North Korea whose people have been suffering seriously due to low economic development and mass poverty, eagerly seeking economic growth with any costs. South Korea have been believed as one of the core countries that can cooperate with for economic development. Reflecting the circumstances, private and public entities of South and North have been developing various types of economic cooperation projects after the South-North summit.
Unfortunately, the economic cooperation between South and North may have great potentials for heavy environmental impacts. Many environmentalists in South Korea argue that some of the economic cooperation projects can even more deteriorate North Korea's natural ecosystems already suffering heavy de-forestation, and worsen environmental po