South Korea has spent billions of won to maintain North Korean customs facilities that remained largely idle after inter-Korean trade halted when the Kaesong Industrial Complex shut down in February 2016, according to documents revealed on Oct. 14.
Tensions remain high, with North Korea recently announcing plans to “permanently shut off and block the southern border” with the South, which it labeled as its “primary foe and invariable principal enemy.” North Korea blew up the northern parts of inter-Korean roads no longer in use on Oct. 15.
South Korea has spent approximately 3.46 billion won ($2.5 million) between 2017 and June this year maintaining the Dorasan Support Center (Paju Customs) and the Goseong Support Center (Sokcho Customs), which oversee inter-Korean overland trade, according to Korea Customs Service data submitted by Rep. Cheon Ha-ram of the Reform Party. The Dorasan facility costs an average of 300 million won annually, while Goseong requires around 180 million won per year.
These North Korean customs facilities primarily handle the import and export of goods at the Inter-Korean Transit Office, while a separate ministry manages immigration and quarantine, according to the Korea Customs Service.
The problem is that these customs facilities have not been used since inter-Korean trade was suspended. The number of vehicles crossing the border via overland routes between the two Koreas dropped to a single instance in 2017, then surged to 5,976 in 2018 before falling to 4,235 in 2019 and 311 in 2020, then halted almost entirely. “The inter-Korean vehicle movement recorded since 2021 has been for joint training exercises with the Ministry of Unification and others, unrelated to North Korean trade,” the Korea Customs Service reported to the National Assembly.
The future of inter-Korean trade remains bleak. “Unless there is a major upheaval in North Korea that overturns Kim Jong Un’s regime, it is unlikely that inter-Korean trade will resume anytime soon,” said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
The South Korean government has no plans to reduce personnel or scale back the budget for these dormant North Korean customs facilities. “With the country facing a chronic tax shortfall, it is worth reconsidering the billions spent on North Korean customs facilities that have been effectively abandoned,” said Rep. Cheon.
