Kaesong Industrial Complex business leaders held a meeting yesterday in which they urged North and South Korea to cooperate to reopen the complex.
“We hope that the two sides will resume working-level talks and come to an agreement on normalizing the Kaesong Industrial Complex for us,” a task force committee established to represent the 100+ owners asserted during the meeting, which was attended by all the companies operating in the inter-Korean manufacturing zone.
“If both North and South Korea want the genuine resumption of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, then we ask that they first allow management personnel to be allowed in to inspect, repair, and maintain the equipment,” the group noted.
“We found the North’s proposal during the sixth round of working-level talks to be forward-looking,” it went on. “All North Korea has to do is guarantee that there will be no recurrence of the current situation, not under any circumstances.”
The committee also made public its demand that the government of South Korea properly compensate companies in the event that it closes down the Kaesong project once and for all.
The group is also launching a petition, asking the public to support their demand that the Kaesong Complex be normalized, andholding a relay protest outside the National Assembly main entrance until such time as the Complex re-opens.
Meanwhile, the North Korean authorities have yet to respond to South Korea’s proposal for a seventh round of working-level talks on the future of the Kaesong zone.
