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South Korea Proposes Talks With North on Factory Complex North and South Korea to Meet About Industrial Park
(about 9 hours later)
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea on Thursday revived its proposal for talks with North Korea to discuss reopening a jointly operated industrial complex, three weeks after their last attempt to start a dialogue collapsed amid mutual recriminations. SEOUL, South Korea — South and North Korea agreed on Thursday to meet later this week to discuss reopening a jointly operated industrial complex, three weeks after their last effort to start a dialogue collapsed amid mutual recriminations.
The two Koreas have bickered over the fate of the Kaesong Industrial Zone, a factory park located in the North Korean border town of the same name, ever since the North pulled out all 53,000 of its workers from the complex in April, citing military tensions it blamed on joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises at the time. If the meeting, scheduled for Saturday at the border village of Panmunjom, takes place as planned, it would provide the two Koreas with an opportunity to move toward a thaw after years of tensions that hit a peak earlier this year, when the North’s third nuclear test triggered international sanctions and the North issued a stream of threats against the South and its ally, the United States.
The owners of 123 South Korean factories who had withdrawn from Kaesong after their North Korean workers deserted them have been eager to return there. Their hopes rose, then crashed after the two governments first agreed to hold senior-level talks in Seoul on June 12, but canceled them in a last-minute dispute over who should lead their delegations. North and South Korea have bickered over the fate of the Kaesong Industrial Zone, a factory park located in the North Korean border town of the same name, ever since the North pulled out all 53,000 of its workers from the complex in April, citing military tensions it blamed on joint American-South Korean military exercises at the time.
Since then, the two sides had made no overtures over the fate of the Kaesong complex, until now. The owners of 123 South Korean factories who had withdrawn from Kaesong after their North Korean workers deserted them have been eager to return there. Their hopes rose, then crashed after the two governments first agreed to hold senior-level talks in the South Korean capital, Seoul, on June 12, but canceled them in a last-minute dispute over who should lead their delegations.
The meeting planned for Saturday involved lower-ranking government representatives and was confined to discussing the fate of the factory park. But if the two sides agree to reopen it, such a move can be a start for the “trust-building process” South Korea has insisted upon as a prerequisite for improving ties further with the North.
The most contentious question in the planned talks will be the conditions imposed on the reopening of the factory park. The South insists it will not reopen it unless the North takes steps to ensure that it will not sacrifice economic projects for political ends.
On Wednesday, some of the factory owners said they could no longer wait and demanded that the two Korean governments let them return to Kaesong so they could disassemble their manufacturing facilities and relocate them to South Korea or elsewhere in Asia.On Wednesday, some of the factory owners said they could no longer wait and demanded that the two Korean governments let them return to Kaesong so they could disassemble their manufacturing facilities and relocate them to South Korea or elsewhere in Asia.
That prompted the North to open a cross-border communications hot line on Wednesday and invite South Korean factory owners and engineers to return to Kaesong to do maintenance work on their equipment ahead of the possible reopening of the complex. Factory owners have warned that their facilities will begin deteriorating soon, as the rainy season has just started.That prompted the North to open a cross-border communications hot line on Wednesday and invite South Korean factory owners and engineers to return to Kaesong to do maintenance work on their equipment ahead of the possible reopening of the complex. Factory owners have warned that their facilities will begin deteriorating soon, as the rainy season has just started.
On Thursday, South Korea refused to let the factory owners travel across the border. Instead, it reiterated its proposal for official dialogue, insisting that the fate of the factory park should first be discussed between the two governments. It proposed to hold talks at the border on Saturday. On Thursday, South Korea made a counterproposal for official dialogue, insisting that the fate of the factory park should first be discussed between the two governments. The North accepted it.
There was no immediate reaction from the North. The Kaesong complex, where textile and other labor-intensive factories from South Korea had hired low-cost North Korean workers, had been the best-known among a handful of joint projects, introduced during a period of inter-Korean rapprochement between 1998 and 2008. All those projects were suspended as relations deteriorated in the past few years.
“We make this proposal, considering the difficulties faced by Kaesong factory owners and the severe damage expected to their factories with the onset of the monsoon season,” said Kim Hyung-suk, spokesman for the South’s Unification Ministry.
The Kaesong complex, where textile and other labor-intensive factories from South Korea had hired low-cost North Korean workers, had been the last and best-known symbol of inter-Korean economic cooperation until it was shuttered in April.