Mick Hartley

From South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo:

The South Korean government has failed to recover approximately 885.3 billion Korean won (620.2 million dollars) in unpaid North Korean loans as of the 13th. Despite the Export-Import Bank of Korea sending 100 reminders since the initial repayment deadline in June 2012, North Korea has never responded. Opposition parties criticized, “Unrecoverable loans to North Korea are all taxpayers’ money,” and urged, “Strong measures like seizing North Korea’s overseas assets must be considered.”

One hundred reminders and they still haven’t responded. That’s the way to do it. All those unopened envelopes sitting in a pile somewhere in Pyongyang, as a monument to South Korean folly.

The loans, totaling 932.9 million dollars (1.3318 trillion won), were provided to North Korea between 2000 and 2007 during the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations.

Kim Dae-jung promoted the Sunshine Policy, a policy of détente toward North Korea. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000. Of course he did.

Roh Moo-hyun also supported the Sunshine Policy, and adopted a conciliatory approach to North Korea

So that worked out well.