(image: KobizMedia/ Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea is an ideal location for the construction of smart cities, a South Korean expert has said, proposing concrete measures to boost inter-Korean economic cooperation.
Min Kyung-tae, a North Korea expert at the Seoul-based Yeosijae, Future Consensus Institute, said that it is very efficient to build smart cities in North Korea if the entire Korean Peninsula is viewed as one system.
Min also said that the North’s unique socioeconomic environment is suited for testing new forms of cities.
He made the argument in a contribution to the October issue of the KDI Review of the North Korean Economy, which was seen by Yonhap News on Tuesday. The magazine is published by the state-run Korea Development Institute.
Smart cities are a futuristic high-tech municipality that use advanced information and communication technologies to network all the infrastructure of the city.
“The development of new towns in South Korea requires enormous expenses and complex procedures and smart cities with new technologies will require far more time to prepare laws and systems. In the case of North Korea, however, the necessary policies can be quickly enforced by the will of the top leader and the party’s decision,” Min said.
“As there is no private property rights in North Korea, the burdens for land expropriation and compensation are substantially lighter than in South Korea. There is also a prediction that the construction of infrastructure, such as roads and railways, can be completed in the North at about a third of the cost in the South.”
Min said South Korean companies will be able to have an opportunity to test their new technologies and services through inter-Korean cooperation, noting that resistance from the market and those with industrial vested rights is very weak in North Korea.
Min said that if South Korean smart cities push to introduce autonomous vehicles, telemedicine and a distance education system, for instance, there could be a lot of resistance from the interested parties, and the revision of relevant regulations and laws could take time.
Citing Pyongyang’s policy plan to foster five special economic zones and 22 economic development zones, he suggested that regionally tailored advanced technologies be introduced to each zone when inter-Korean economic cooperation is in full swing.
(Yonhap)
