South Korea yesterday warned that it would take “necessary steps” if Pyongyang continues its unauthorised use of a joint industrial complex in the North once seen as a symbol of reconciliation.
More than 50,000 North Korean workers once worked at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, churning out products from watches to clothes for about 125 South Korean companies that supplied the funding and equipment.
Seoul pulled out of the venture — launched in the wake of the 2000 inter-Korean summit — in 2016 in response to a nuclear test and missile launches by the North, saying that Kaesong profits were being used to fund the North’s provocations.
Photo: AFP
However, the North has continued using the facility and its South Korean-owned assets without permission, the South Korean Ministry of Unification said.
The South Korean Liaison Office yesterday sent a notice demanding activity at the factory complex to cease, but North Korea refused to accept it, the ministry said.
The announcement came a day after North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper released a set of photographs showing what appeared to be a South Korean bus that was once used to carry workers to the complex running in Pyongyang.
The continued operation of the facilities “regardless of the will of the businesspeople is a clear violation of property rights” and the two Koreas’ agreement on investment guarantees, the ministry cited the notice as saying.
“North Korea should stop this immediately. If there is no corresponding response from North Korea regarding our request, we will take necessary steps assuming that North Korea has admitted to operating the complex without permission,” the notice said.
What action might be taken was not specified.
While open, the business park was virtually the last remaining form of economic cooperation between the Koreas.
It provided precious hard currency for the impoverished North, and cheap labor and tax breaks for the companies involved in the venture.
North Korea has doubled down on the expansion of its military arsenal and nuclear program since a 2019 Hanoi summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and then-US president Donald Trump failed to yield any meaningful outcome.
In recent weeks, it has tested what North Korean state media claimed was an underwater, nuclear-capable drone and carried out the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Officials in Seoul and Washington have warned since the beginning of last year that North Korea could be preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test, with some experts saying it could be imminent.
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