President Park Geun-hye's "Eurasia Initiative"

One Continent, Creative Continent, Continent of Peace
“Opening and Denuclearization of North Korea through the Peaceful Prosperity of Eurasia”

• Eurasia is a name combining Europe and Asia. The two continents have a combined area of 54.92 million ㎢ or 40% of the land of the whole world. As many as 78 countries belong to Eurasia, accounting for 71% of the total population on earth. East of Eurasia starts in the Republic of Korea.
  
  As Chairperson of the National Unification Advisory Council, President Park Geun-hye proposed the "Eurasia Initiative" to build "One Continent,” "Creative Continent," and "Peaceful Continent" in her opening speech at the "International Cooperative Conference of the Eurasia Era" held last Oct. 18 at Hotel Shilla in Seoul, Korea. The "Eurasia Era" she is proposing seeks to connect the Far East starting from the Republic of Korea, Siberia, Central Asia crossing Ural and Gafkas Mountains, East and West Europe, and finally arriving in London, UK.
  
  The "Eurasia Initiative" proposed by President Park is an ambitious plan to change the fundamentals of global economy, diplomacy, and national security geography. What she proposes is re-connecting the "Silk Road" -- which existed before Christ but was broken by the cold war between the Eastern and Western Bloc in the previous century -- to revive the connectivity of "One Continent" and promote world peace with a single economic bloc and market through the dynamic force that can be obtained by such connectivity in the regions. It is a of the global village that no other world leader has ever considered.
  
  President Park called her plan for the peaceful prosperity of Eurasia as the "Resurrection of Silk Road.” She proposed reenacting "Silk Road," which led the progress and advancement of human civilization through the exchange and fusion of civilization, which transferred the Oriental technology of making paper and pottery to the West and the Western calendar to the East. It is an expanded reinvention of the Silk Road using Park Geun-hye's method of reviving the 6.400km long silk road built in BC 200 years, starting from the central region of China, crossing Huxi Corridor, following Takla Makan Desert and Pamir Plateau, vast plains in Central Asia, and Iran Plateau and finally arriving in the Mediterranean Sea.
  
  President Park's Eurasia Initiative starts from the immeasurable potential of the regions. The economic blocs covered by Eurasia are EU and Russia in the West and Northeast Asia including China in the East, which will be covered by the integration of the Northern Economy excluding America. The Eurasia community can be combined with ASEAN in the South, which becomes the combination of South and North Economies. Moreover, it may include NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) across Pacific Ocean. It will then be a gigantic market accounting for more than 90% of the world economy. The Korean Peninsula is the Gateway of Eurasia.
  
  President Park emphasized that energy infrastructure including electric power networks and gas and oil pipelines in the regions should be connected by making use of their geographical characteristics wherein the world’s largest producing and consuming countries coexist. Moreover, the shale gas of China and oil and gas in East Siberia will be developed jointly to achieve the win-win strategy of Eurasia’s energy cooperation. She added, "The strengthened networks of logistics and energy in Eurasia will not only reduce the logistics cost and revitalize world trade but also contribute to the growth of the world economy through stabilized raw material price.”
  
  High in the list of the Eurasia Initiative of President Park is the "Silk Road Express (SRX)" connecting Busan, South Korea~North Korea~Russia~China~Central Asia~Europe. Once SRX is connected, the transportation time through Suez Canal will take only 14 days from the current 45 days. Capital investment ability can be accumulated with the reduction of opportunity expenses. Beyond reaping economic benefits, the problems of frequent sea robbers and political instability in Egypt, Syria, and other areas can be overcome. President Park told President Putin when they had summit talks last September that she dreams of a train leaving Busan, South Korea for Europe via Russia, which is the "Silk Road Express.” The North Pole Route she mentioned at the Eurasia Conference is also a silk road in the sea.
  
  The Eurasia Initiative of President Park has actually been implemented. She proposed connecting "Silk Road" when she had summit talks with President Putin last September. Last October at APEC, he proposed the project of laying gas pipelines in the East Sea instead of gas pipelines coming through North Korea. President Putin responded to Park's proposal of Eurasia Initiative with "Energy-Logistics Networks.” They had another round of summit talks in November in Seoul to take a closer step forward to the economic community of Eurasia.
  
  President Park had summit talks with President Komorovski of Poland, a Eurasian country, last Oct. 22 in Seoul, and they agreed on establishing a strategic partnership. President Park toured West Europe starting Nov. 2 including UK, Belgium, France, and EU. An important agenda of the state visit was the Eurasia Initiative. The proposal from the Korean side is to discuss matters that can be implemented right away, such as expansion of new growth engines and extension of cultural and human exchange. The countries in the regions will proceed with key subjects including establishing a single market and having peace take root in the regions. It is her initiative to make Eurasia a .
  
  The centerpiece of President Park's Eurasia Initiative is the . It includes all values of economy, diplomacy, and national security, which can change the future of the Korean Peninsula. It aims at making a gigantic wave of peace and prosperity in Eurasia Communities originating in Europe, Southwest Asia, and Middle East as a motive for the reformation, opening, and denuclearization of North Korea and improving human rights in the North.
  
  We may use Eurasian countries as leverage to convince North Korea; if Pyongyang refuses, however, we increase the pressure on North Korea -- where the line of Eurasia Prosperity is severed -- to connect the Eurasian line to North Korea by force. Can Pyongyang stop the locomotive of the Eurasian community, which is a drastic revolution of the world history? "Building the new Eurasia to overcome isolation and severance, tension, and dispute and exchange peacefully with communication and opening and prosper together" is the essence of the proposed by President Park.
  
  President Park is the first president of Korea to include "building the foundation of peaceful unification" in the keynote of a government. She has strong will to lay the foundation of peaceful unification during her term. The series of summit talks with the USA, China, and Russia after her inauguration were intended to give shape to such will. The Big 3 supported the Korean Peninsula’s Trust-Building Process proposed by President Park and the peaceful unification of the Korean peninsula and opposed North Korea’s nuclear weapons. In particular, the summits of the USA and China said, "We do not recognize North Korea as a country possessing nuclear weapons."
  
  The Eurasia Initiative proposed by President Park, who has been expanding the supporting foundation through "diplomacy of trust," is an aggregate of her will to lead North Korea to reformation and opening and build the foundation of peaceful unification through the denuclearization of North Korea.It will be a creative step for the two Koreas to build trust via the Korean Peninsula Trust-Building Process, through which residents of one side can travel freely to the other side and vice versa and contribute to peace not only in Eurasia but also the whole world.
  
  National unification is not a threat but a great opportunity for all.Once it is achieved, we should start building the social infrastructures of North Korea in full scale such as railroads, bridges, and roads with our technology. Our economy can grow more than 10% annually since the national defense cost will be reduced. The serious problem of jobless youths will be solved, and the compulsory military service will be shortened drastically. Goldman Sachs, a well-known world investment and financing company, said in its recently released report that the combination of the technology and capital of South Korea and human and natural resources of North Korea will make the Korean Peninsula more advance than France and Germany and even Japan within 3 ~ 4 decades thereafter.
  
  National unification is neither a disaster nor a burden.On the occasion of announcing the “Eurasia Initiative" by President Park, we are now reconsidering the roles of the National Unification Advisory Council to support the presidential will for peaceful unification according to the Constitution and consolidate the unification capabilities of the people.
  
  

  Hyun Kyung-dae
  Executive Vice-chairperson, National Unification Advisory Council