By Choi Sung-jin
Up to half of all small- and medium-sized enterprises in South Korea are interested in doing business in North Korea if inter-Korean relationships and situations in the North allow for it, a survey showed.
In the survey conducted by the Korea Federation of SMEs on 200 of its members, 44.5 percent of the respondents said they would examine the possibility of doing business in North Korea if circumstances allow, with 5 percent replying they would do so "positively."
The remaining 30 percent said they would not do business in the North and the other 20.5 percent said they are not interested at all.
Asked whether they know about the "private marketplaces" in the North where residents buy and sell products for private gains, only 22 percent said they had knowledge of them, indicating that the vast majority of SMEs are not familiar with developments in the isolationist regime. As to the products they want to sell in those markets, 22 percent cited food and beverages, followed by clothing (10.5 percent) and machinery and electronics (7.5 percent).
Almost half (45 percent) view the family reunions as having favorable effects on inter-Korean talks and economic exchanges. In order for the South-North talks to bear any results, 35 percent said that political stability is most important, followed by economic cooperation (33 percent) and social and cultural exchanges (23 percent).
Three-fourths of the respondents said that increased economic cooperation between China and North Korea would have positive or little effects on inter-Korean ties with the remaining one-fourth seeing it as negative. "Most SMEs are favorably evaluating the government's unification policy, as shown by this survey," said a federation official. "South Korean businesses need to know about the winds of change in North Korea, such as the increase of private marketplaces, so they can make better use of this information."