Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| South Korean businessmen operating companies at Gaeseong Industrial Complex hold a press conference at the Korea Federation of SMEs headquarters in Seoul, to demand the government take swift measures to prevent North Korea from entirely destroying the complex as part of its "series of retaliatory actions" against the South for not implementing inter-Korean agreements, Wednesday, a day after North Korea destroyed the inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Gaeseong. Yonhap |
By Jung Da-min
South Korean businesses with assets at the currently shuttered Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) have called on the government to take swift measures to prevent North Korea from destroying the entire complex as part of its "series of retaliatory actions" against the South for not implementing inter-Korean agreements.
An association of GIC companies held a press conference at the KBIZ Korea Federation of SMEs headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday, a day after North Korea blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Gaeseong.
Concerns among the business owners have been rising that they could lose their assets worth about 1 trillion won ($822 million) that remain in the complex as speculations are that the North's next step may include the total demolition of the complex.
"Although the recent sending of propaganda leaflets to the North Korean side by a defectors' group is now being blamed for triggering the demolition of the inter-Korean liaison office by the North, there are more reasons for the North's action, including that the government has not implemented its promises made in the April 27 and Sept. 19 inter-Korean agreements in 2018," an official with the association said.
Calling on the government to legislate regarding the sending of leaflets by anti-North groups, they urged the South Korean government to implement the inter-Korean agreements made between President Moon Jae-in and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, in which the two Koreas promised to carry out inter-Korean projects including reopening of the GIC.
The North's destruction of the liaison office came after Kim Yo-jong, a top North Korean official and the sister of the country's leader, issued bellicose statements toward the South Korean government earlier this month, ostensibly because of the South's inaction in banning propaganda leaflets sent north.
She said the North would take a series of retaliatory actions if the South fails to take corresponding steps, and the actions included the shutdown of the liaison office, which took place on Tuesday. Other actions were the complete shutdown of the GIC and scrapping the 2018 Sept. 19 Comprehensive Military Agreement in which the Koreas agreed to stop all hostile activities in border areas. The North said Wednesday it would send its troops to the GIC.
According to the Gaeseong companies' association, about 120 companies left facilities or products worth about 1 trillion won in the North Korean border city when they withdrew from there in February 2016, when then-President Park Geun-hye suspended the inter-Korean project in response to Pyongyang's test launch of a long-range missile and fourth nuclear test.
But as inter-Korean relations started to thaw after President Moon took power in May 2017, hopes had been rising among the Gaeseong business owners that they could reopen, especially after the three inter-Korean summits held in 2018.
As the businesses in Gaeseong have been suspended for the past five years, the business owners have filed legal complaints against the government for compensation and lodged a petition with the Constitutional Court to claim the operation suspension by the Park government was unconstitutional. But the lawsuits and the petition have not produced much progress. The business owners said that the government has only provided them with about 500 billion won in compensation.
