North’s Kaesong demands imply policy U-turn

North Korea has barred South Korean companies from removing

machinery and equipment from the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial

Complex in an apparent move to keep the project alive, a Unification

Ministry official said yesterday.

An official of the North’s Central Special Zone Development Guidance

General Bureau informed a South Korean official of the Kaesong Industrial

District Management Committee on Sunday of Pyongyang’s position, the

ministry said. The bureau is in charge of managing the industrial complex

near the inter-Korean border.

“We will continue efforts to develop the Kaesong Industrial Complex,” the

North Korean official was quoted as saying by the ministry. “In principle,

we will not allow machinery and equipment that are registered as corporate

properties outside the complex.”

The joint industrial complex, a product of the inter-Korean summit held in

2000, is the last remaining point of economic cooperation between the two

Koreas. About 110 South Korean companies employ 42,000 North Korean

workers at factories in Kaesong, but the project was at the brink of a

shutdown after Seoul decided to minimize the number of South Koreans

staying there amid escalated tensions on the peninsula in the aftermath of

the Cheonan’s sinking.

According to the Unification Ministry, the North Korean official complained

about Seoul’s recent measures. Calling the moves preparations to shut

down the complex, the North Korean official said the South will be held

accountable if that happens.

The North also demanded that South Korean firms pay all overdue

payments including wages, before taking any machinery out of the factories,

the ministry said.

Machinery that requires repairs in the South will be allowed to leave the

complex as long as the North confirms their malfunctions, and on the

condition that they be returned to the factories after being fixed, the North

demanded, according to the ministry.

No North Korean workers should be put on leave because South Korean

companies pull machinery and raw materials from Kaesong, the North also

said.

The detailed demands hint at the communist regime’s intention to keep the

project alive. It also clearly contradicts North Korea’s May 27 warning that

it would consider banning all South Koreans and their vehicles from

entering the complex.

Passage of South Koreans at the inter-Korean border remained unchanged

as of yesterday. About 813 people were to enter Kaesong Industrial

Complex and 600 were to return.

Meanwhile, the Unification Ministry also said yesterday that the North will

make public its position on the Cheonan fallout at an extraordinary meeting

of the Supreme People’s Assembly next week.

The Supreme People’s Assembly is the North’s unicameral parliament, and

the country announced a plan to hold an session next Monday, only two

months after its last meeting. This is the first time that a second meeting

has been called within one calendar year since Kim Jong-il came to power.

In its weekly report, the Unification Ministry speculated that an announcement will likely come from the meeting about pending issues including the South’s formal accusation that the North torpedoed the warship Cheonan in March.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s recent trip to China and issues related to

his successor may also come up at the Supreme People’s Assembly, the

ministry said.

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