South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has proposed a three-stage reunification with North Korea, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday.
Speaking at a ceremony held in Seoul to mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japanese colonial rule in 1910-1945, Lee said current inter-Korean ties needed a new paradigm, and it was "imperative that the two sides choose coexistence instead of confrontation, progress instead of stagnation," the agency said.
He said Seoul and Pyongyang should build an inter-Korean "peace community" first to assure security and harmony on the Korean Peninsula, then work for an "economic community" for a comprehensive exchange and mutual prosperity. After that, the two sides can establish a genuine "national community", Lee said, according to Xinhua.
Lee said it was time for discussing substantive measures for the reunification of the two Koreas, such as "a unification tax" to prepare for the huge financial burden in case the two Koreas realize the reunification, the agency reported.
According to a study by a South Korean parliamentary committee, Seoul is expected to bear about 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars cost if the "two Koreas" are reunited, local media said.
Lee said, however, that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was the most important thing at present, the agency reported.
Talks on North Korea's nuclear program, involving Russia, Japan, China, the United States and the two Koreas, stalled last April when Pyongyang pulled out of the negotiations in protest against the United Nations' condemnation of its missile tests.
MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti)
