"South Korea-Japan Underwater Tunnel" Surfaces as an Issue in the Busan Election: "Pro-Japan" "DJ Promoted It, Too"

[경향신문]

On February 1, Kim Chong-in, head of the People Power Party emergency committee visited Busan and said, “We will actively review the construction of an underwater tunnel between South Korea and Japan linking Gadeok-do (in Busan) and Kyushu, Japan.” Since then, the underwater tunnel between the two countries has surfaced as a new debate topic in the mayoral by-election in Busan. The ruling party and potential ruling party candidates all criticized, “It would be a highway for Japan to penetrate the continent” and the opposition party and its potential candidates fought back saying, “Former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun also promoted the tunnel.”

According to the information from the Busan Development Institute on February 3, the underwater tunnel between South Korea and Japan was first mentioned in discussions at the Japanese Army General Staff Office in 1917. In 1935, the civil engineering bureau at the Home Ministry of Japan developed a construction plan as part of its scheme to invade the continent. Japan began a topographical survey in 1939, but the plan was suspended after three years due to the Pacific War, which broke out in 1941.

It was the Unification Movement that brought up the underwater tunnel between the two countries again. The Unification Movement called for the construction of an International Peace Highway in 1981, suggesting a road network in East Asia linking Tokyo, Seoul, Pyongyang and Beijing and presented the underwater tunnel between South Korea and Japan as the starting point. In 1983, the Japan-Korea Tunnel Research Institute was established in Japan and in 2008, the Korea-Japan Tunnel Research Institute was established in South Korea.

Former presidents were also interested in the idea. In 1990, President Roh Tae-woo suggested the construction of an underwater tunnel to the Japanese prime minister at the time, and former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun also considered the underwater tunnel. However, most experts see these discussions as part of the government’s efforts to manage its foreign relations rather than as an attempt to actually promote the construction of the tunnel.

In 2009, the Busan Development Institute released a research report titled, “The Fundamental Study for Building the Korea-Japan Tunnel and the Unified Traffic Corridor of Northeast Asia.” The institute proposed its own route after surveying the sites of three routes proposed by the Japan-Korea Tunnel Research Institute. The route was 222.64km long, running from Busan to Tsushima, Iki Island, and arriving at Fukuoka. The estimated cost of construction was 92 trillion won, slightly lower than the 100 trillion won estimated by Japan.

Afterwards, opinions on the tunnel were divided in two. Those in favor of the tunnel argued that the economic benefits would be huge when the railway was later linked all the way to Europe, but those against the tunnel claimed that Busan would end up as a transit city despite spending an astronomical figure on construction costs. In 2011, the Korea Transport Institute released a report concluding that the tunnel was not economical, which seemed to silence the debate on the underwater tunnel, but studies have continued centered on the Tunnel Research Institute.