Unification Head Vows to Continue Kaesong Project
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
Minister of Unification Lee Jong-seok, left, looks at footwear during his visit to the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea, Tuesday, while Hyun Jeong-eun, right, chairwoman of the Hyundai Group, looks on. /Yonhap
KAESONG, North Korea _ Minister of Unification Lee Jong-seok said Tuesday that South and North Korea will never let the production activities stop at the joint industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
“Whatever changes there may occur in the situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula, the South and North will not stop production in the industrial complex, which serves common interests,’’ Lee said in a speech at the office of the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee.
Lee’s remarks followed recent frictions between South Korea and the United States over the criticism of some U.S. officials on the North Korean workers’ human rights situation in Kaesong.
South Korea and the United States have also been at odds over whether the products made in Kaesong should be included in the upcoming free trade agreement (FTA) deal or not.
South Korea argues that the products, which are the outcome of South Korean companies’ investments and technology and North Korean labor force, should be included in the deal, while the United States wants to exclude them on grounds that they are manufactured on North Korean soil.
“I hope that the Kaesong complex will become the epicenter of peace for the entire Korean Peninsula and eventually for Northeast Asia,’’ Lee said.
Top executives of South Korean companies operating factories in Kaesong echoed Lee’s statement.
“We heard that Jay Lefkowitz, U.S. presidential envoy for North Korean human rights, is criticizing the human rights situation for North Korean workers in Kaesong, without even coming to check here,’’ Kim Ki-moon, CEO of Romanson, a watch producer that started operations in Kaesong last August. “But as Minister Lee said, we will succeed in Kaesong at any event.’’
Moon Chang-seop, president of Samduk Stafild, a shoe-making company that opened a factory in the complex last November, said that he hopes the South Korea-U.S. FTA deal will include the made-in-Kaesong products.
“After that our company will decide on whether to expand production lines here,’’ Moon said.
Shinwon, a clothes maker known for casual brands such as Koolhaas, is scheduled to complete 10 more production lines in June, according to company executives.
Currently about 6,800 North Koreans and 500 South Koreans are working in the Kaesong industrial complex, according to the Unification Ministry. By 2012 when the complex operates to its fullest capacity, it is expected to create jobs for some 100,000 South Koreans and 730,000 North Koreans, according to an estimation of the district management committee.
Minister Lee, who visited Kaesong for the first time since he took office in February, toured some historic sites in Kaesong, the ancient capital of the Koryo Kingdom (918-1392), after inspecting factory facilities in the complex.
The one-day trip was accompanied by some 150 government officials, business leaders, including Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of the Hyundai Group, which plays a pivotal role in conducting cross-border businesses.
Until early in the morning, North Korea did not issue an invitation to a Joongang Ilbo reporter on grounds that the reporter’s articles have been problematic.
Most members of the press corps, who considered it another attempt by the North to make the South Korean media pander to their demands, decided not to cross the border at all. But North Korean officials eventually gave in to South Korean officials’ repeated requests before noon and all the journalists were allowed to cross.