Reto Wittwer, president of the Swiss Kempinski Hotel Group, said that he had heard Ri Su-yong, a former North Korean ambassador to Switzerland with close ties to Kim, saying that putting the two Koreas under the framework of one country while allowing each to maintain its political system is one possible way to achieve unification on the Korean Peninsula because their economic and other gaps are prohibitively big.
Realistically, the difference between the South and the North is too big and unifying them into one political system may take more than two generations, Wittwer quoted Ri as having told him.
Ri is a vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and has also served as the head of the North's agency tasked with luring in foreign investment as well as the country's ambassador to Switzerland. He is deemed one of the North Korean leader's close aides as Kim spent his childhood in Switzerland in the late 1990s while Ri was the ambassador to the country.
Wittwer of the hotel chain, which is now engaged in planning the opening of the tallest hotel in Pyongyang in mid-2013, made public the remarks by Ri, his long-time acquaintance, in a lecture held in Seoul.
Ri noted that immediately unifying the two Koreas into one country is next to impossible but the only best possible way is tying them into one entity while allowing them to maintain their current systems in a so-called "one country, two systems" scheme like the one adopted by China and Hong Kong, according to the chairman.
The big gap between the two countries may prohibit them from being unified in the current generation and even in the next generation, Ri was also quoted as saying. The following generation may finally be able to come to an agreement to choose either system or to create a brand-new system, Ri also noted.
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Ryugyong Hotel (AP-Yonhap file photo) |
The chairman said his hotel group has joined Egyptian firm Orascom Group in developing and running Ryugyong Hotel, which they plan to put into operation in Pyongyang in mid-2013.
Kempinski Hotel Group is engaged in the management of the 105-story hotel rather than footing investment in it, he said. Construction is nearly complete on the second-floor lobby as well as the banquet room on the third floor and about 150 hotel rooms in the upper part of the building will be the first ones open to customers, he said.
The project to build the hotel first began in 1987 but an economic crisis brought it to a halt in 1992. The Egyptian firm decided to invest US$180 million and resumed the construction in 2008 with the hotel chain joining to manage the high-rise hotel.
Chinese tourists may be the first to arrive at the hotel given the North's alleged discussion with China's tour administration, the chairman said, adding the opening of the hotel may help the North open up to the world.
pbr@yna.co.kr
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