South Korea's unification minister said Wednesday that his government is not considering closing a joint industrial complex despite lingering uncertainty over border stability after North Korea arbitrarily blocked visits by South Korean workers and cargo trucks, Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday.
The North Korean military sealed the border twice last week as a U.S.-South Korean military exercise got underway in and around South Korea. The border was fully opened Tuesday, normalizing traffic to the joint complex in the North's border town of Gaeseong.
"We are not considering shutting it down," Hyun In-taek was quoted as saying in a forum with journalists in Seoul. "Our government's position is that the Gaeseong industrial complex should be developed in a stable manner."
Border crossings continued Wednesday, but uncertainty about the joint industrial complex remained. During the border closure, many South Korean factories in Gaeseong considerably cut down production as raw materials were not delivered for four days.
The ministry said North Korea hand-delivered a letter to the South that gave approval for 739 South Korean workers and managers to visit Gaeseong and 485 to return Wednesday.
"If North Korea continues to ... cause losses to our companies and create an environment that is worrisome to outside investors, it cannot develop stably as our government wants it," he said. "North Korea should not repeat this behavior."
The Gaeseong complex, just an hour's drive from Seoul, is the only major reconciliatory project that remains intact, an outcome of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000. Other projects, including tours to the North's scenic Mt. Geumgang and historic sites in Gaeseong, an ancient Korean capital, have all been suspended as political relations have degenerated since last year.
Ninety-three South Korean firms operate in the complex, employing about 39,000 North Koreans that produce clothes, watches, kitchenware, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods. Their combined output was $250 million last year.