The South Korea-built support center at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex remains severely damaged after North Korea demolished the inter-Korean liaison office adjacent to it, June 16, as seen in this September photo. / Yonhap

By Kang Seung-woo

Inter-Korean exchanges at the nongovernment level have come to a halt largely due to the COVID-19 crisis which led North Korea to close its borders in January.

Worse, South Korean private organization-led humanitarian aid to the North and government-level inter-Korean economic cooperation are also losing steam amid ongoing frayed ties between the two Koreas, dented by Pyongyang's destruction of an inter-Korean liaison office and the killing of a South Korean fisheries official ― both of which have raised resentment and antipathy in the South.

Despite repeated offers from the government and the international community to provide coronavirus assistance, Pyongyang has refused the aid proposals to prevent outside help from bringing in the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Also despite serious damage from floods in August, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un himself announced the decision not to receive relief aid. The North has not reported a single infection, officially.

As a result, the unification ministry has not approved any requests to send relief goods to the North by nongovernmental aid bodies since its last approval for medical supplies issued in September. Also earlier between March and August, it approved six requests to send supplies to the North, but actual delivery was not made due to Pyongyang's refusal to accept any.

"Since the North Korean leader rejected the outside aid in August, even trade from China to the North has not been working smoothly," a ministry official said.

Economic cooperation between South and North Korea is also nonexistent.

Due to the sanctions called "May 24 measure" and the closure of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, inter-Korean economic cooperation has been put on hold.

The economic sanctions, imposed by the Lee Myung-bak administration in 2010 in retaliation for the North torpedoing the South Korean Navy ship, Cheonan, ban inter-Korean economic exchanges and cooperation. The Park Geun-hye administration shut down the joint factory park in Gaeseong in February 2016 after the North conducted its fourth nuclear test and launched a long-range missile.

When Unification Minister Lee In-young, a long-time advocate of engagement with the North, took office in July, he came up with an idea of "small-scale trading" with the North to expand cross-border exchanges that would not be subject to international sanctions, providing a glimmer of hope for a resumption in inter-Korean trade.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has prohibited face-to-face talks between the two Koreas and it was also difficult to find items not subject to sanctions. Plus, the North has shown little interest in the small-scale deals.

"With international sanctions against the North still in place, the government has floated ideas of individual tourism by South Koreans to the North or small-scale trading," another ministry official said.

"The North's reopening of its borders is the only way humanitarian aid to the North can be delivered and inter-Korean economic cooperation resumed."

Kang Young-sik, chairman of the South-North Korea Exchanges and Cooperation Support Association, said, "This is the first time for nongovernmental inter-Korean exchanges to be suspended for such a long time. The cessation is placing both South Korean aid organizations and the North in a difficult position."