Should South Korea Participate in China's Belt and Road?

Sungku Jang

Security, Eurasia

The costs involve more than money.

Last year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in declared that the Republic of Korea wanted to participate in the Chinese One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative in Chongqing. And this year, Liaoning province decided to join China’s OBOR link to the Korean Peninsula. Although South Korea is an important U.S. ally, why would it want to participate in the Chinese OBOR? There are four reasons.

First, connecting South Korea to the rest of Eurasia by the OBOR has symbolic meaning for South Koreans. Since the outbreak of the Korean War nearly seventy years ago, South Korea has been disconnected from the continent, effectively becoming an island since it could no longer access North Korean territory. Many South Koreans have sought to reconnect with the rest of Asia to escape from their isolation, where the country felt more similar to Japan and the United Kingdom than a country with a one-thousand-year-old culture and a shared history with their northern neighbors. South Korean constitutional law even includes North Korean territory under South Korea’s domain (Article 3). Thus, the present division between the two Koreas brings many contradictions to the forefront of South Korean society. If South Korea can connect with North Korea through China’s OBOR, then Seoul can overcome these contradictions and fulfill the Korean people’s long-held wish.

Second, President Moon expects that participation in the initiative will mitigate tensions between South Korea and North Korea by creating joint economic opportunities. If South Korea connects with China through North Korea, South Korea can use multimodal transportation (the ability to transport cargo by land, air and sea). This will increase the efficiency of South Korean trade and its partners will become more varied than before. But South Korea would need to rebuild North Korea’s train infrastructure because it is too decrepit to use. After rebuilding the train system, South Korea can resume business with North Korea at the Kaesong industrial complex and Kumgang mountain. These investments and a new, broader economic relationship could help mitigate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.