Hyundai Asan, the company which manages the Mt. Geumgang tourist resort and the Kaesong Industrial Complex reported today that North Korea has begun to “freeze” South Korean property in the Mt. Geumgang area by placing stickers on five buildings, including a reunion center for separated Korean families.
According to Hyundai Asan, North Korea has placed “freeze” stickers over the keyholes and cracks in the doorways. The term "freeze" as used by North Korean officials refers to property usage restrictions, and is similar in legal terms to “seizure.” Freezing can be seen as the final step before complete shutdown.
Today North Korea also gave four Korean-Chinese maintenance staff currently working at thefacility for separated family reunions twenty-four hours to leave the country. The reunion center was the first building to be frozen, followed by the fire station, hot spring resort, house of culture, and the Onjeonggak duty-free shop.
The freeze happened from 10 AM and was carried out by roughly twenty members of the North Korean Tourist Site Development Bureau and related departments. Associates from the Mt. Geumgang office of Hyundai Asan also went along to try and figure out the situation.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Minster of Unification Hyun In Taek said this morning at a meeting of the Unification, Foreign Affairs, and Trade Committee of the National Assembly, “We will respond in full so as to ensure our employees do not suffer any disadvantage.”
In response to Liberty Forward Party leader and former presidential candidate Lee Hoi Chang‘s question regarding exactly how South Korea would hold North Korea accountable for the freeze, Minister Hyun said, “I cannot give specific details of an effective measure, but we are looking into efforts on an international level.”
Meanwhile, North Korea experts see this as a tactic to stagger the raising of tension with the South Korean government, and say that it may be also related to internal instability.
“North Korea is unable to accomplish any of its goals within the current Lee administration North Korea policy, so it is inevitable that they will try to create crisis-level tensions to overcome the roadblock,” explained Sogang University professor Kim Young Soo in an interview with The Daily NK. He elaborated, “At work here is the North’s evaluation that the creating of tension, as opposed to pursuing dialogue and cooperation, is more advantageous.”
“With local elections coming up, North Korea also intends to shift the blame for deteriorating inter-Korean relations away from themselves,” Professor Kim continued. “It is likely that North Korea willcontinue to put the ball in our court, trying to incite a response from us. It is also possible that the North could choose military actions along the lines of small skirmishes.”
However, Professor Kim sees no viable way for the Lee administration to respond. “If the South Korean government withdraws from the Kaesong Industrial Complex, it will end up shooting itself in the foot, taking all the blame for problems in North-South relations.”
According to a researcher at the Seoul-based Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS) Jung Gwang Min, “North Korea is elevating tensions in order to reverse progress in North-South relations.”
“North Korea has said it wants to take the lead in the economy and its people’s livelihoods, but this does not make any sense,” Jung added, because, “Freezing South Korean assets can contribute to internal problems such as the instability of the succession and the regime.”
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