Interview
Post-Election North Korea Policy

The Democratic Party of Korea won the parliamentary elections of April 15 2020. This also strengthened the position of President Moon Jae-in, who won the presidential elections in 2017 as the Democratic Party of Korea’s candidate. Now his party has the majority of seats in the South Korean National Assembly. Accordingly, President Moon has greater scope for action to implement his election promises.

One of these election promises is the rapprochement with North Korea and the inner-Korean peace process. The news channel Arirang TV broadcast a programme on 21 April on the subject “Moon Jae-in administration's post-election North Korea policy”. Dr. Seliger took part in the discussion. In general, he supports the newly planned projects of the Moon government, such as cooperation in the field of health, or the reconnection project of inter-Korea railways. “But it all depends on (the willingness for) cooperation of North Korea”, Dr. Seliger said. Furthermore, there is no indication from North Korea that they are interested in these projects. He recommends focussing “on people to people centred projects”.

Towards the end of the program, the current reports on the state of health of the North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un were discussed. Dr. Seliger made it clear that no precise statement could be made now. “We don’t know anything more about that”, he said. He made it clear, however, that if Kim became seriously ill, North Korea would grind to a halt, which would slow down joint projects with South Korea.

Link to Video.