Unification must be achieved to help N. Koreans: governor

DANDONG, China, July 9 (Yonhap) -- Unification between South and North Korea must be achieved to help the plight of people living in the isolated country, Gyeonggi Governor Kim Moon-soo said Saturday.
Kim, who is in the Chinese city across the Amnok River from North Korea, said he felt keenly the decline of the communist country, which is in stark contrast to the boom taking place in China.
"In Dandong, there are plenty of high rise buildings, but the view across the river is desolate," he said. The official said China has pushed forward reforms and joined the international community, while the North has not altered its stance on following its brand of closed nationalism that has resulted in backwardness and poverty for its people.
"Such nationalism is meaningless," he claimed, stressing that there is a pressing need for the two Koreas to be unified.
He said that those who do not call for unification have no love for the Korean people and for their fellow man.
Kim, in addition, said that pro-North Korean sympathizers in South Korea should live in the North, so they can experience first hand the hardship of people living there.
The governor of South Korea's most affluent and populous province arrived in the city from Shenyang earlier in the day and toured the new port facilities being built, the new industrial complex and an area of land being developed near North Korea's Hwanggumpyong region, which Pyongyang wants to build up as a new industrial zone.