Abstract
North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or DPRK) is under strict UN economic sanctions because it violated UN policy in its development of nuclear weapons and long range missiles as well as for its militant rhetoric. South Korea (Republic of Korea or ROK) and Japan, as close allies of the USA, are unsure of the future. Is there a way to bring some peace and stability to the Korean peninsula? Some argue that this is a hopeless task as long as the current leadership of North Korea is in power. This article takes a more positive stance and outlines a possible way forward. The study, following the position of the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK), assumes that the conflict is at root one over ideology and power. The leadership of North Korea understands itself as “a revolutionary and socialist state” and is determined to continue to control the country through a rigorous and sometimes brutal government oversight of the culture. Although poverty and hunger are widespread, the people have little opportunity to be heard. What if the leaders of North Korea were persuaded that they could gain legitimacy through developing a dynamic economy that brought flourishing to their people and respect by fellow-nations in the global village? The article proposes to start this new adventure by developing enterprise zones in the North (the Kaesong Industrial Complex) that would bring jobs and food to hundreds of thousands of North Koreans. To begin this project, there would need to be dramatic steps toward denuclearization on the part of the North in order to relax the UN economic sanctions. Is it possible? The article outlines a way forward.
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Notes
This paragraph closely follows pp. 768-9 in Williams’ article “The UN Global Compact: The Challenge and the Promise,” in Business Ethics Quarterly 14 (4), 2004.
For example, as of 2010, 121 of the companies operating in the KIC were doing business with the total of 4,164 partner companies (i.e., vendors and suppliers), and it is estimated that these partner companies employed about 19,721 workers from 2005 to 2010 (Korea Industrial Complex Corporation 2010).
In 2014, two years before the KIC closed, three companies in the Kaesong Industrial Complex and GIDF (Gaesung Industrial District Foundation) joined the UNGC and aspired to fulfill their responsibilities in accordance with the UNGC ten principles concerning human rights, labor rights, environmental sustainability, and anti-corruption. In the process of restarting KIC, it will be necessary to cooperate with the international community, especially the UN and the UNGC.
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Williams, O.F., Park, S.YS. “Business for Peace” (B4P): can this new global governance paradigm of the United Nations Global Compact bring some peace and stability to the Korean peninsula?. Asian J Bus Ethics 8, 173–193 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-019-00093-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-019-00093-4