NK considers suspending factory complex
Source: Agencies |
April 9, 2013, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
NORTH Korea said yesterday it will suspend operations at a factory complex it has jointly run with South Korea, pulling out more than 53,000 North Korean workers and moving closer to severing its last economic link with its rival as tensions escalate.
The Kaesong industrial complex just north of the Demilitarized Zone is the biggest employer in North Korea's third-largest city. Shutting it down, even temporarily, would show that the country is willing to hurt its own economy to display its anger with South Korea and the United States.
The statement about Kaesong came from Kim Yang Gon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. It did not say what would happen to the 475 South Korean managers still at the industrial complex. The statement also did not say whether the North Korean workers would be recalled immediately, and a South Korean manager at Kaesong said he had heard nothing from the North Korean government.
"North Korean workers left work at 6 o'clock today as they usually do. We'll know tomorrow whether they will come to work," said the manager.
North Korea had asked South Korean managers to say when they intended to leave by Wednesday; the manager said he did not know whether he and his South Korean colleagues now will be forced to leave.
Kim's statement said North Korea will consider whether to close the complex permanently. "How the situation will develop in the days ahead will entirely depend on the attitude" of South Korean authorities, it said.
SK to act 'calmly, firmly'
South Korea's Unification Ministry, which is responsible for relations with North Korea, issued a statement saying South Korea will act "calmly and firmly" and will make its best efforts to secure the safety of South Koreans at Kaesong.
The Kaesong complex is the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean rapprochement projects from previous eras of cooperation. Other projects such as reunions of families separated by war and tours to a scenic North Korean mountain became stalled amid confrontation between the two countries in recent years.
Last month, North Korea cut the communications with South Korea that had helped regulate border crossings at Kaesong, and last week it barred South Korean workers and cargo from entering North Korea. Operations continued and South Koreans already at Kaesong were allowed to stay, but dwindling personnel and supplies had forced about a dozen of the more than 120 companies operating at Kaesong to close.
Kim, the party secretary, visited the complex yesterday. He said in remarks carried by the Korean Central News Agency that Kaesong "has been reduced to a theater of confrontation."
South Korea's Unification Ministry estimates 53,000 North Korean workers in Kaesong received US$80 million in salary in 2012, an average of US$127 a month.
The Unification Ministry says Kaesong accounted for nearly all two-way trade between the two countries. Cross-border trade, including supplies entering Kaesong and products coming out, approached US$2 billion annually. North Korea objects to portrayals of the zone being crucial to the country.
The Kaesong industrial complex just north of the Demilitarized Zone is the biggest employer in North Korea's third-largest city. Shutting it down, even temporarily, would show that the country is willing to hurt its own economy to display its anger with South Korea and the United States.
The statement about Kaesong came from Kim Yang Gon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. It did not say what would happen to the 475 South Korean managers still at the industrial complex. The statement also did not say whether the North Korean workers would be recalled immediately, and a South Korean manager at Kaesong said he had heard nothing from the North Korean government.
"North Korean workers left work at 6 o'clock today as they usually do. We'll know tomorrow whether they will come to work," said the manager.
North Korea had asked South Korean managers to say when they intended to leave by Wednesday; the manager said he did not know whether he and his South Korean colleagues now will be forced to leave.
Kim's statement said North Korea will consider whether to close the complex permanently. "How the situation will develop in the days ahead will entirely depend on the attitude" of South Korean authorities, it said.
SK to act 'calmly, firmly'
South Korea's Unification Ministry, which is responsible for relations with North Korea, issued a statement saying South Korea will act "calmly and firmly" and will make its best efforts to secure the safety of South Koreans at Kaesong.
The Kaesong complex is the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean rapprochement projects from previous eras of cooperation. Other projects such as reunions of families separated by war and tours to a scenic North Korean mountain became stalled amid confrontation between the two countries in recent years.
Last month, North Korea cut the communications with South Korea that had helped regulate border crossings at Kaesong, and last week it barred South Korean workers and cargo from entering North Korea. Operations continued and South Koreans already at Kaesong were allowed to stay, but dwindling personnel and supplies had forced about a dozen of the more than 120 companies operating at Kaesong to close.
Kim, the party secretary, visited the complex yesterday. He said in remarks carried by the Korean Central News Agency that Kaesong "has been reduced to a theater of confrontation."
South Korea's Unification Ministry estimates 53,000 North Korean workers in Kaesong received US$80 million in salary in 2012, an average of US$127 a month.
The Unification Ministry says Kaesong accounted for nearly all two-way trade between the two countries. Cross-border trade, including supplies entering Kaesong and products coming out, approached US$2 billion annually. North Korea objects to portrayals of the zone being crucial to the country.
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