North Misuses South Korean Road Aid

North Korean wasted 3,000 tons of asphalt worth 1.8 billion won, the Ministry of Unification said yesterday.

The asphalt was intended for paving a road on Mt. Baekdu and was supplied to the North through the Inter-Korea Cooperation Fund. The government had planned to provide the North with additional 3,500 tons of asphalt worth 2.1 billion won to North Korea for reconstruction purposes.

“North Korea used 3,000 tons of asphalt out of 8,000 tons (4.91 billion won) supplied by the South to pave the Samjiyeon Airport runway near the Mt. Baekdu,” a Ministry of Unification (MOU) spokesperson said yesterday,

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and the Hyundai Asan, the agent for Mt. Baekdu tourism, reached an agreement last July with the North’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee (APPC) to offer 8,000 tons of asphalt (4.9 billion won) to pave a 20-kilometer road (a two-lane road from Samjiyeon Airport to Mt. Baekdu’s Begaebong Hotel) to aid Mt. Baekdu tourism.

However, North Korea used 3,000 tons of the asphalt to pave a runway instead.

An official from the MOU said, “Korean engineers recently found that medium- and large-sized planes can’t take-off from or land on the Samjiyeon Airport runway,” and added that 3,500 tons of asphalt, which will be resupplied to the North, will be used to cover the whole runway.

On January 19, the KTO agreed with the APPC to offer the North 8,000 more tons of asphalt (worth 4.8 billion won), including 3,500 tons for runway work, and 4,500 tons for the supplementary paving of a road near the Mt. Baekdu summit.

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com