남ㆍ북 경제협력 활성화를 위한 법제 정비방안

Since the summit talk between South and North Korea in June 15th 2000, the economic cooperation between South and North Korea had been dramatically improved and developed. Obviously, during the last one decade under Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moohyun administration in South Korea, the Korean peninsula was in détente. The friendly environment between South and North Korea however, has not continued as the newly elected Lee Myong Bak administration came to the power in South Korea. Especially, the incident that a south korean touristwas shot to death at Kumkang Mountain by North Korean soldiers aggravated the South-North relationship more. Nonetheless, the economic cooperation of South and North Korea is expected to be developed more in the near future, as long as North Korean nuclear problem is solved and South-North reconciliation resumes. Then, more integrated and advanced economic cooperation between South and North will be achieved. In order to prepare for the more integrated and advanced economic cooperation in Korean peninsula, our legal system on South-North Korea economic cooperation should be revised and newly legislated. The properly rearranged legal system will stabilize the South-North relations and develop the new dimension of inter-korean economic cooperation. In order to achieve these aims, the present legal system should be revised in order to fill the gap that existing laws overlook and to remove legal hindrances that have stymied economic cooperation between South and North. In addition, the present legal system should be revised so that unnecessary regulations are abolished and the process of economic cooperation is simplified. Furthermore, in accordance with future basic plan on South-North development, statutes that are related to economic cooperation should be revised systematically. The revision has to take into consideration implementation of legal infra structure for reunification in Korean peninsula as well. Maintenance and overhaul of legal system is not able to be completed by the unilateral attempt by the South Korea. Rather, this could be accomplished by bilateral endeavor between South and North Korea. Consequently, cooperation from North Korean authorities is inevitable in order to achieve Economic Community between South and North. In addition, it is necessary to institute “the Committee on Arrangement of Inter-Korean Exchanges and Cooperation Laws” (hereinafter “the Committee”). The Committee will be composed of officials in the ministry of reunification and outside experts on Korean peninsula. The Committee will scrutinize the relevance of legal system on the South and North Cooperation, and examine whether existing regulations and procedures in economic cooperation are required to be revised. In addition, the Committee will search for problems in legal system and rectify legal systems if problems are found. Besides, South and North should collaborate to establish the foundation for legal systems that will foment cooperation in many areas as well as economic cooperation between two Koreas. In this sense, it is recommendable to organize a committee that will harmonize South and North Korean legal systems, as South and North Korea agreed in principle to establish this committee under “the South and North Basic Agreement”. Through this committee, South and North Korean government authorities will effectively share opinions in order to attain synchronization in legal systems. Furthermore, this committee is expected to revise legal systems in South and North Korea that have prevented two Koreas from cooperating with each other. As such, this committee will be a successful vehicle that is able to search for the improvement in collaboration between South and North.