Local cities compete for DMZ peace park

If the past is any guide, President Park Geun-hye’s plan to build a peace park in the Demilitarized Zone may be close to infeasible.

Previous attempts by governments to bring symbols of peace into the no-man’s land, fortified with heavy arms and strewn with land mines, ended in smoke. Worse, inter-Korean ties are at one of the lowest ebbs in recent years.

But regional governments bordering the 4-kilometer-wide buffer zone are brimming with hopes and already embarking on plans to host the envisioned park.

The plan would bring tourism revenues and construction projects to the frontier economies which have suffered from long-running tension between the two Koreas.

The president fielded the idea as part of her “trustpolitik” doctrine during her address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on May 9.

The Ministry of Unification recently said that it would form a planning committee. No such concrete actions have been taken before, a ministry source noted.

Adjacent municipalities including Cheorwon, Paju and Yeoncheon in Gyeonggi Province have all campaigned to host the proposed park in their own counties.

Cheorwon and Goseong held inaugural meetings of respective host committees last week, touting their geographical and historical significances as vestiges of the Korean War.

But experts caution they should not attach too much expectation, given that similar efforts have failed several times since the 1970s.

“The regional governments are like tiger moths following after the sparkling light, which is the government money,” Kim Jae-han, professor at Hallym University’s Politics and Administration department, told The Korea Herald.

“No one can be sure about its feasibility. The government is showing the same pattern as in the past,” Kim noted.

The government and experts also voiced concerns about excessive competition among local governments.

“The central government should decide early on where to place the park, in terms of balanced national development, regional stability and world peace,” the official said.

By Suk Gee-hyun (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)