ced Japan corporations and industries. Sixty million Koreans are not an order ofmagnitude to match either the 150 million Russians or the 1 billion Chinese or the 120 millionJapanese. (Young-Hwan Choi, 1996). Yet, a united Korea must be considered a major factor inthe Far East and in the world economy as a whole.International Support Will Be NeededA united and stable Korea is not only in the interests of North-East Asia, but the world atlarge. To underpin unification, Korea would need substantial international economic andfinancial support. While Japan is still recording huge annual trade until here recently, its fellowglobal co-financier for many years, Germany, is no longer a surplus country followingunification. Thus, the burden falling on Japan will inevitably increase adding to its presentlevels of development assistance and support for the transformation of Eastern Europe.As North Korea is very poor in infrastructure, such as roads, harbors, railroads,communications and power supplies, massive investments will need to be directed to these areasfollowing unification. Massive loans will have to be secured from the World Bank, the AsianDevelopment Bank and other international financial institutions. The flow of privateinvestments must be intensified, not only from Japan. As a first step, South Korea shouldbecome more closely associated with existing fora of international economic cooperation, suchas the OECD whose members account for more than 80% of international investment flows. Inthe OECD framework, Korea would be asked to subscribe to mutual commitments such as rulesand principles concerning the protection of foreign investment, trade, the liberalization offinance, and the movement of the people, which might induce further investment flows to theentire country.ConclusionDifferent scenarios must be kept at hand. Even from a purely political or strategic pointof view, scenarios might have to be developed. The political ...
