North Korea is apparently operating at least ten South Korean-owned factories in the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC) without authorization, Seoul’s Ministry of Unification said on May 9. As evidence, a ministry official cited intelligence such as satellite imagery.
The Korean edition of Voice of America (VOA) also analyzed Google Earth data from Apr. 20 and found that the North’s maneuvers have become more vigorous – in particular, it observed crowds and bus movements at 21 separate buildings in the complex. Moreover, North Korea is apparently clearing the area around the Inter-Korean Liaison Office, which it blew up in 2020. The blast site had since been neglected for the past three years. Now, however, VOA discovered that most of the debris and rubble still surrounding the building and blocking access to the main road has been cleared – most likely to facilitate operations at the manufacturing site.
As of 2016, South Korea had invested seed capital of at least KRW 1 trillion (about USD 828 million) in the facilities and equipment in the formerly joint industrial park. The South’s unification ministry thus said it was considering taking legal action to defend its property rights.
North Korea bombed parts of the KIC in 2020
The Kaesong Industrial Complex is a special administrative industrial region of North Korea, located only ten kilometers north of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Panmunjom and an hour’s drive from Seoul. It served as a center for economic cooperation with the South, and as a de facto embassy for the two nations, after the Inter-Korean Liaison Office – a building designed to maintain peaceful communications – opened in 2018.
A total of 53,000 North and 800 South Korean employees once worked in the industrial park, according to an estimate by the Wall Street Journal, churning out a variety of consumer goods for about 125 South Korean companies. In turn, the ROK provided the necessary personnel, funding and equipment.
On Feb. 10, 2016, however, South Korea halted operations and cut off water and electricity supplies in Kaesong after a North Korean rocket launch. The North then declared the KIC to be military property, threatened to expel southern workers and liquidate the ROK’s assets and equipment. South Korean workers abandoned Kaesong just hours later.
In June 2020, the DPRK deliberately bombed the Inter-Korean Liaison Office in response to Seoul’s refusal to ban or punish defectors from sending pro-democracy leaflets and flash drives via balloon to North Korea.
Most of the debris was never removed. However, North Korea has been ordering adults and children in Kaesong to salvage scrap metal from the rubble of the Inter-Korean Liaison Office and has set an annual quota each citizen must fulfill. There have even been cases in which people steal scrap metal for fear of not being able to meet the state’s demands.
Edited by Robert Lauler.
