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South Korea has asked the U.N. to discuss followup measures to the sinking of one of its warships, the government said Friday. Seoul, via its ambassador to the U.N., sent an official letter outlining the request to Mexico, current chair of the U.N. Security Council. The letter called for the U.N. to discuss the Cheonan issue as it is of huge gravity and poses a threat to international peace and stability, according to the Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun. Vice Foreign Minister Chun Young-woo was in New York this week to meet with U.N. officials on the last-minute details of the letter. A multinational team of investigators said earlier this month that a North Korean torpedo had ripped the 1,200-ton warship into two on March 26, killing 46 of those on board. Pyongyang continues to deny involvement.
A North Korean soldier keeps watch over the South side wearing a battle helmet at the truce village of Panmunjeom in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas. (Yonhap) In order to draw out strong countermeasures from the U.N., South Korea has enlisted the support of international allies. On Thursday, Seoul’s chief nuclear negotiator Wi Sung-lac said he informed Russia of the South government’s plans to send the letter to the U.N. to hold North Korea accountable at the U.N. Security Council. “I clarified that South Korea would bring the case to the U.N. Security Council,” Wi Sung-lac told South Korean correspondents in Russia. Earlier in the day, Wi met his Russian counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin, for talks on North Korea’s sinking of the warship. Russia, along with the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan and China, make up the six-way talks designed to end Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. These discussions have been stalled since last year, after the North said it would “permanently” quit the dialogue to retaliate a U.N. denouncement of its rocket launch. Pyongyang also conducted its second nuclear test in May last year. As with China, Russia also has close ties with the North. The two nations have so far been the most lukewarm in setting in motion tougher sanctions against the North. China maintains it will need to further review the issue. It did, however, stress it would not “protect” anyone culpable for the sinking. Russia recently dispatched a three-member team of naval experts for a first-hand review of the results and evidence. But despite its appeal to the U.N., even the Seoul government is skeptical of seeing stepped up sanctions. Pyongyang is currently already under stringent U.N. sanctions for its missile and nuclear tests. “We expect the Security Council to send a political, symbolic and moral message that such acts as the Cheonan incident cannot be tolerated and that North Korea should be held accountable and should not repeat this kind ofmilitary provocation,” Vice Foreign Minister Chun said earlier this week. For its part, Seoul has halted all inter-Korean trade and is keeping activities at Gaeseong Industrial Complex at a minimum. The military has beefed up anti-submarine drills, but a similar drill to be conducted jointly with the U.S. was delayed. The Defense Ministry said this was because the U.S. called for more time to prepare. The two nations had been scheduled to conduct the large-scale, four-day naval drill in the South’s waters off the West Sea starting Monday. “The joint naval drill, set to be held early next week, was delayed to after mid-June, given conditions of preparations by the U.S. side,” Deputy Defense Minister Chang Kwang-il told reporters on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific security conference in Singapore Friday. President Lee Myung-bak, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young and other security officials participated in the forum. http://www.koreaherald.com/pop/NewsPrint.jsp?newsMLId=20100604000472
PAJU, Gyeonggi - Gang Chang-bum, 44, the head of clothing manufacturer 55 & 66 Dot Com Company at the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex, complains that he wakes up from sleep at least four to five times a night these days. “I invested 10 billion won [$8.2 million] in this business, including a 7 billion won loan from the bank,” said Gang, whose company has been operating in the joint industrial complex since late last year. “I invested boldly to start a ‘real’ business but ...” As he drove from his home in Seoul to his factory in Kaesong, he confessed that his business is now losing around 100 million won per month. In the wake of escalating North-South tensions since the Navy ship Cheonan went down on March 26, business owners at the industrial zone say they are walking on thin ice. Their nerves were shaken further when North Korea announced Monday that it would bar South Korean companies from removing machinery and equipment from the industrial complex, in their aim to keep the project alive. The Kaesong Industrial Complex was launched after North and South Korea reached an agreement during the inter-Korean summit held in 2000. It is the last remaining point of economic cooperation between the two Koreas. Around 110 South Korean companies employ 42,000 North Korean workers at factories in Kaesong. The project, however, has been close to a shutdown since Seoul decided to minimize the number of South Koreans staying at the industrial complex. Gang said that he saw problems even before the ship sank. “I was only able to employ around 250 North Korean workers, even though I requested 2,570. So a portion of the company’s production was done at Chinese plants. Amid worsening circumstances, the Cheonan situation broke out,” said Gang, adding that he has begun to worry about quality control since the government has minimized the number of South Korean workers who can stay in the area. Park Hyeon-su, 50, head of an electronic parts company at the industrial complex, has a similar story. “I feel as though I’m living with a time bomb,” said Park. The tensions have made him start smoking again, two and a half years after he quit. Park said it’s like working on a roller coaster, with every day changing with the latest news. Even so, he said that he will wait a little longer before doing anything. “Considering the labor force and quality [of the products], Kaesong Industrial Complex is about 20 percent more competitive than China.” Manufacturers at the industrial complex gathered on Tuesday to discuss business countermeasures to the post-Cheonan diplomacy. The Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee will hold another meeting today to formulate plans to request the government to create measures to protect companies in the joint industrial complex. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/print.asp
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea expressed a desire to keep a joint industrial complex in operation, South Korean officials said Monday, while the South indicated that it might reconsider its decision to revive psychological warfare against the North. The developments showed that the two Koreas were carefully weighing the option of easing their confrontation, analysts said. Tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula have deteriorated to their worst point in years after a South Korean warship sank on March 26. South Korea blamed a North Korean torpedo attack for the blast. “Neither side can afford to keep building up tensions,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea specialist at Dongguk University in Seoul. “Both sides have been raising tensions the way you blow into your balloon, and now they need an excuse for each other to stop blowing so that the balloon won’t burst.” After it formally accused the North on May 20 of having responsibility for the sinking, South Korea cut off nearly all trade with the North and began a diplomatic campaign to bring it before the United Nations Security Council for punishment. The South also vowed to resume psychological warfare against the North, after a six-year hiatus, by rebuilding loudspeakers along the border for propaganda broadcasts and by dropping leaflets over the North using balloons. If the psychological war resumes, the North has warned that it would shut down a joint industrial complex at the North Korean border town of Kaesong — the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean ties. The North also warned that it would shoot artillery shells across the border to blast the loudspeakers. The South would certainly have to respond in kind, officials said, raising the possibility of a major skirmish along a border guarded by nearly two million troops on both sides. “We want to continue to develop the Kaesong project,” the North Korean authorities said in a message delivered through South Korean businessmen at Kaesong on Sunday, according to a senior South Korean government official who briefed reporters Monday on the condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, Jang Gwang-il, a senior policy maker at the Defense Ministry in Seoul, said that the South Korean military was still reviewing when to send leaflet balloons over the North. His remark was seen as a step back from the military’s earlier vow to send the balloons as soon as the weather permitted. Mr. Jang said that the South would “make a comprehensive review of the situation” before deciding whether and when to start launching leaflet balloons or broadcasting propaganda across the border. The apparent pause in inter-Korean tensions came a day after Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China declined to join South Korea and Japan in publicly condemning North Korea at a three-way weekend summit meeting, instead urging both Koreas to defuse tensions. On Monday, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama of Japan told Mr. Wen that he supported Seoul’s plans to bring North Korea before the Security Council for sanctions or condemnation, The Associated Press reported. The two countries also agreed to start negotiations over a treaty to develop natural gas resources under the East China Sea, said Osamu Sakashita, a spokesman for the prime minister’s office. South Korea remains determined to force North Korea to apologize and punish those responsible for the sinking, which killed 46 South Korean sailors. The North denies any involvement and warns of war if new sanctions are imposed. But analysts say that neither Korea can benefit from sustained tensions. Public denouncements of the North may help candidates of President Lee Myung-bak’s governing party in local elections in South Korea on Wednesday, but prolonged tensions will hurt its economy, they said. While most South Koreans condemn the North for the sinking and support Mr. Lee’s handling of the crisis so far, many also blame his tough stance toward the North for fueling a military provocation, surveys here show. The North Korean threat to shut down the border raised some concern in South Korea that hundreds of South Korean workers who commute to Kaesong on a typical workday might be trapped there as hostages. But South Korean officials say that if Kaesong is closed, North Korea will suffer more than the South. About 43,000 North Koreans would lose some of the best-paying jobs available for workers in the impoverished country, and the resulting discontent could spread out of Kaesong, they argue. The complex also provides the North with $40 million in workers’ wages, most of which goes to the government. The Kaesong complex, where 121 South Korean factories hire cheap North Korean labor, has been both praised as a testament to inter-Korean cooperation and denounced as a source of cash for the North’s nuclear weapons program. Of the several measures the South has taken, the possible resumption of psychological warfare has raised the most hackles in the North, which strives to keep its population isolated from outside news. Last week, the South resumed its “Voice of Freedom” radio broadcasts, which do not directly criticize North Korean leaders but promote the capitalist lifestyles of the South. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/world/asia/01korea.html?_r=1&sq=kaesong&st=nyt&scp=2&pagewanted=print#
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. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/print.asp
About a week has passed since the Seoul government banned all inter-Korean trade and exchanges after officially accusing the North of torpedoing a South Korean naval ship. Seoul began giving selective approval on shipments from North Korea and several South Korean companies in the North’s border town started preparing an exit strategy. The South Korean government on Monday gave the green light to bringing in North Korean- processed products for the first time since it announced punitive measures against the North’s alleged attack on the Cheonan.
The road leading to the Gaeseong industrial park is empty near the inter-Korean border office in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on Monday. Yonhap News
An official at a clothing manufacturer said his company recently shipped 3,000 pairs of shorts processed in Pyongyang to Incheon via Dandong, a Chinese port on the border with North Korea. The clothes arrived in Incheon last Wednesday, but got stuck in the port due to deferred customs clearance. The customs authorities cleared the shorts from Pyongyang on Monday, marking the first acceptance of North Korean-processed products since Seoul banned inter-Korean trade (with the exception of the Gaeseong industrial park) Thursday as part of punitive measures against the Cheonan attack. Seoul said Friday that it will consider selective acceptance of end products processed on commission in North Korea. “The shorts were made with materials sent (to Pyongyang) between late April and early May,” the company official said. “Another 2,000 pieces of children’s clothing (from North Korea) are scheduled to arrive in Incheon this Wednesday via Dandong, but I’m concerned whether the government will let us bring them into the country.” About four out of five South Korean companies that have their products processed in North Korea ship the end products through the Dandong-Incheon passenger ships. It remains to be seen whether Seoul will allow other shipments from North Korea including clothes, frozen seafood products and radios brought in by a third country-registered freighter called the Trade Fortune, which docked in Incheon on Saturday. The companies discussed on Tuesday ways to minimize their losses in the aftermath of the latest measures. South Korean companies operating in the joint factory park in Gaeseong, just north of the inter- Korean border, are largely perturbed as the fate of the enclave continues to hang in the balance. A major reduction in orders in the wake of the naval disaster led one of the companies to suspend business. Several other companies that had employees stay in dormitories within the Gaeseong park made them commute instead. An official of a South Korean firm in Gaeseong said his company had 500 of its 850 North Korean employees take leave after Seoul announced retaliatory measures on May 24 against the Cheonan sinking. company explained that they had to temporarily cut the work force due to dwindling orders as the wages and board expenses were getting burdensome. The company still has to pay about 60 percent of the wages for employees on leave, but that was better than fully paying them, the official said. North Korean workers in Gaeseong are paid a monthly average of about $70 plus overtime, board and commuting expenses, which altogether comes to a total of around $110-140. One of the companies is building a plant in Guangzhou, China, to replace its North Korean factory due to a growing shortage of manpower in Gaeseong. Fears are rising over the future of the industrial enclave as South Koreans have been prohibited from investing further in the Gaeseong park, where the number of South Korean workers has been halved. The companies are urging the Seoul government to come up with measures to ensure their security and expand the insurance coverage for inter-Korean economic cooperation. About half of the 121 companies operating in Gaeseong wish to withdraw from the enclave due to reductions in orders, but voluntary pullouts are not covered by insurance under current rules. “I am worried the Gaeseong complex may be degraded to an incompetent industrial park with growing uncertainties and dwindling orders,” said Kim Kyu-chul, who represents a nongovernmental group on inter-Korean economic cooperation. http://www.koreaherald.com/pop/NewsPrint.jsp?newsMLId=20100601000628#
» North Korean employees working at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea examine tel evision monitors manufactured at the complex, September 2009. The General Bureau for Central Guidance to the Development of the Special Zone, the North Korean institution in charge of administration for the Kaesong Industrial Complex, sent notification to South Korea on Sunday that it would be continuing efforts to develop the complex and prohibiting the removal of facilities registered as company property within the complex. An official with the Unification Ministry said Monday that this message was delivered verbally to the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee by an official with the bureau. The General Bureau announced that all facilities and goods within the complex could only be removed after passing through the North Korean revenue office located within the complex. The announcement also stated that the removal of facilities registered as company property would be prohibited as a rule, that companies with financial obligations such as wages would only be able to remove items after first settling their obligations, and that it would be prohibited to idle North Korean employees by removing facilities, raw materials or subsidiary materials. The bureau said that rental equipment could only be removed after confirmation of rental documentation, and that repair equipment could only be removed after verification of working order, repair time and conditions for reimportation. “South Korea’s announcement of restriction measures such as reducing the number of employees staying at the Kaesong Industrial Complex is a preliminary effort toward closing the Kaesong Complex,” the General Bureau also declared. “If the Kaesong Industrial Complex closes in the future, this is South Korea’s responsibility.” Analysts have interpreted this statement from North Korea to mean that it does not intend to preemptively close the complex any time soon. “They are trying to prevent South Korean companies from withdrawing beforehand by making the equipment removal conditions exacting,” said a Unification Ministry official. At the same time, observers say the move also reflects a determination by North Korea to prepare for the eventuality of a closure resulting from heightened inter- Korean tensions by laying responsibility at the feet of South Korea and minimizing their own losses. Moon Chang-seop, president of Samduk Tongsang, a tenant company in the complex, said, “Just as companies that go into China cannot just close up their factories whenever they wish, North Korea is presenting a kind of ‘insurance’ for a worst-case scenario.” http://www.hani.co.kr/popups/print.hani?ksn=423505
North Korea's powerful National Defense Commission held a rare press conference for the foreign press on Friday to discredit evidence that identifies the North as the culprit behind the sinking of the Cheonan. To South Korean negotiators who were watching, the officials who spoke to the press were familiar faces. They were Maj. Gen. Pak Rim-su, the director of the policy department at the commission, Col. Ri Son-gwon, and Col. Pak Ki- yong. All regularly attended inter-Korean talks in the past. "We've discovered that all of the North Korean officials who attended previous inter-Korean meetings are members of the National Defense Commission," said a Unification Ministry official. "We also discovered the existence of the policy department at the National Defense Commission and the fact that it is tasked with dealing with South Korea." But the duties of the policy department are not limited to military matters, as could be seen when Pak Rim-su toured the joint-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex and the Mt. Kumgang tourism site with other officials of the department in April. Ryu Dong-ryeol, a researcher at the Police Science Institute, said, "There have been several signs that the National Defense Commission is involved not only in military affairs but also in a wider range of inter-Korean relations, including cross-border business projects. This means that the commission has taken over a significant portion of the duties previously handled by the United Front Department of the Worker's Party." Kim Yang-gon, the director of the United Front Department, was appointed concurrently as a councilor at the commission last year. The commission "had to turn to Kim for advice and expertise as it expanded its role to cover inter-Korean affairs," Ryu said.
Top: A North Korean delegation led by Lt. Gen. Kim Yong-chol (front center) crosses the military demarcation line to attend an inter-Korean military meeting at Panmunjom on Dec. 14, 2007, accompanied by Pak Rim-su (second from left), Ri Son-gwan (left) and Pak Ki-yong (right). Bottom: Pak Ki-yong, Pak Rim-su and Ri Son-gwan (from left) talk at a press conference about the Cheonan sinking in Pyongyang on Friday. / [North] Korean Central News Agency-Yonhap Of particular interest to South Korean officials is the relationship between the policy department and the commission's Reconnaissance Bureau, which was created last year and has been singled out as being responsible for the torpedo attack on the Cheonan. Pak Rim-su, Ri Son-gwan and Pak Ki-yong all served under Lt. Gen. Kim Yong-chol, who heads the bureau. Kim was the head of the North Korean military delegation during inter-Korean military talks between 2006 and 2007, while the three officials served as his aides. "Given the close ties between Kim and the others, it appears that the policy department and the Reconnaissance Bureau also have close relations," said a South Korean intelligence official. Pak Rim-su is also Kim's successor. Before leading the Reconnaissance Bureau, Kim was in charge of the precursor agency of the policy department. http://english.chosun.com/svc/news/printContent.html
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