Talk about a tough commute.
Kim Na-rae regularly travels three miles into enemy
territory inside North Korea to work as a clothing embroidery
designer — ignoring threats that the leadership there will
someday turn Kim’s homeland into a “sea of fire.”
She is one of the 1,000 or so South Koreans who routinely
venture across the Demilitarized Zone into North
Korea to work at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, even
though the two countries are technically at war and come
close to resuming hostilities a couple of times each year.
Last week, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met
with two former presidents, Chun Doo-hwan and Kim
Young-sam, who reportedly suggested shutting down
Kaesong in response to North Korea’s suspected role in the
March 26 sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean
warship.
The square-mile-plus complex — home to about 120 South
Korean companies and more than 43,000 workers — was
developed under former South Korean President Kim Dae-
jung’s “Sunshine Policy” of promoting North-South
relations and business opportunities.
It was launched during the administration of former
President Roh Moo-hyun.
However, long-term plans to expand the complex to more
than 25 square miles, 2,000 companies and 600,000
workers are frequently stalled by continuing friction between
the North and the South.
The future of the 5-year-old complex is once again in
doubt. In a statement released in early April through the official
Korean Central News Agency,the North said it would
“entirely re-evaluate” its involvement in the Kaesong
Industrial Complex if relations continue along a
confrontational path.
Last week, South Korean media reports — citing an
unnamed South Korean Unification Ministry official —
said North Korean military officials who inspected the
complex expressed concerns the South could use high-rises
there to spy on the North or sneak troops into the country
through the complex’s water system. The inspection
intensified speculation the North might end or suspend
its participation in the complex.
In a dispute last week, the North confiscated five
buildings owned by South Korea at Diamond Mountain —
a jointly operated tourist resort in North Korea that,
much like the industrial complex, was designed to benefit
South Korean businesses and the North Korean
economy.
The North said it was seizing the buildings as
compensation for losses it has sustained since the South
stopped sending tours in 2008 after a North Korean
soldier shot a South Korean tourist who reportedly
wandered near a restricted area. The North said the
shooting was accidental.
During its short history, the industrial complex “seems
to hang there in limbo … swinging back and forth
depending on the political winds at the time,” according
to David Garretson, an international relations professor
at the University of Maryland’s University College in
South Korea.
For her part, Kim said she plans to continue working,
trying to shut out the political posturing.
“I was very nervous and afraid about going into North
Korea at first,” she said. “But I’ve found out [North
Koreans] are more pure and naive than South Koreans.
They don’t easily get angry. They just work hard.”
Cheap labor When the complex opened in December 2004,
benefits for both countries were clear.
The impoverished North would open a flow of cash into
the country through land leases and wages that factories
paid to tens of thousands of North Korean workers.
Businesses in the South would get access to low-paid
workers for the labor-intensive production of clothes,
electronics equipment, kitchen appliances and more.
If not for Kaesong, those businesses would have to look
to open factories in such countries as Vietnam, Cambodia
or Indonesia, according to Ok Sung-seok, president of
the Nine Mode Co. and vice-chairman of the Kaesong
Industrial Park Corporations Association.
Kaesong factories now produce goods worth more than
$250 million a year. North Korean workers there make
about $65 a month, but can earn as much as $90 by
working overtime in addition to their regular 45-hour
workweeks, Ok said.
South Koreans work primarily in managerial positions,
and their pay varies depending on their employer. Most
work three or four days a week, and while some return
to their homes each day, many stay overnight between
workdays in dormitorylike accommodations.
Canadian Navy Lt. Cmdr. Hugh Son, the United Nations
Command Military Armistice Commission’s corridor
control officer, said Kaesong workers have told him there
are no armed North Korean guards manning the
complex, but there is always “a presence” of security
personnel.
Kwak Sang-bae, president of the Chung Song Trade Co.
at Kaesong, said every business in the complex has a
North Korean government official assigned to oversee
and represent North Korean workers.
To Ok, the arrangement at Kaesong goes beyond
commerce.
“I’ll never forget the touching moment of seeing South
Koreans and North Koreans working together, side by
side … when my factory first opened,” he said.
“Cultivating and spreading the spirit of freedom to the
Kaesong people is very inspiring.”
Ok fears further growth in factories could be jeopardized
“because of the latest aggravated, unstable situation
between the two Koreas.” Convoy crossings Because relations
between the two Koreas have been tense even in the best of
times, transportation between South Korea and the industrial
complex is complicated.
For the project to begin, both countries had to clear what
is now the Western Transportation Corridor — a yearlong
effort that, on the South Korea side alone, required the
removal of 1,700 land mines, Son said.
Now 20 DMZ convoys cross each day, with workers from
the South going back and forth and materials heading
North and manufactured goods heading South.
Everybody must clear customs and immigration in both
countries, going both ways, and no one is allowed to
cross the DMZ without being granted clearance at least
three days in advance, Son said.
After manifests are checked and immigration and
customs are cleared, vehicles heading north line up for
inspection. South Korean and U.N. vehicles then escort
them as a convoy from the southern boundary of the
DMZ to a point close to the Military Demarcation Line —
the official border between the two countries and the
midpoint of the DMZ.
After the convoy crosses the border, two North Korean
military jeeps take over escorting duties to the industrial
complex.
The corridor has been closed to vehicles on occasions
when tensions between the two countries have been
high. Son said the last time was for two days during the
2009 U.S.-South Korea Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercise,
an annual event the North routinely condemns as an act
of aggression.
Small talk Ok said North Korean and South Korean workers at the
complex are free to talk with each other about anything,
except politics or government.
“We usually talk about our families, like how your
children study well at school, or about our lives,” he said.
“Listening to them, I cannot help thinking that there is a
huge difference in the standards of living between us.
“And the lack of food makes them not grow tall enough.
They are generally shorter than us.”
Kwak said that when his company opened a men’s
clothing factory in the complex in 2007, Moon Pies were
handed out to all the workers.
None of the North Koreans ate their snack.
“Instead, they put these very small pies into their
pockets to bring home so they could give them to their
children, even though they were hungry themselves,” he
said. “I got choked up.”
Nationalism does sometimes find its way into
conversations.
Yu Eun-jae, who is in charge of distribution for a cell
phone parts manufacturer in the complex, said he
stopped sharing details of his personal life at work,
because a North Korean worker kept saying how far
superior his country’s education system is compared to
South Korea’s.
“ ‘Going to universities in North Korea is free,’ ” the
worker would say, according to Yu. “ ‘How can you send
your children to universities that are so expensive in
South Korea?’ ”
Kwak said he believes North Korean workers at the
Kaesong factories enjoy an atmosphere of freedom they
would not find in state run businesses in the North.
Still, he added, “I am afraid and worried that we could be
in danger if hostilities get worse. But, as a businessman,
I am trying to do my best under the circumstances.”
Garretson doesn’t believe either country will “pull the
plug” on the complex, because too much would be lost
for both sides.
“It is a point where they meet, so there’s going to be
friction,” he said.
The complex for both sides “is very profitable. At the
same time, the communication is there for both sides,”
said Son, the Canadian lieutenant commander with the
U.N.
“I’m ethnically Korean … and I hope things work out,” he
said. “I would love to come back here one day and take
a tour of North Korea.”
http://www.stripes.com/articleprint.asp?section=104&article=69686
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