President Lee Myung-bak said South Korea could build another industrial complex in North Korea if the North changes first.
“I think a second Gaesong industrial park is possible and I actually hope it can materialize. But the ball is on the North side,” Lee said in an interview with a Russian TV, Maeil Business News said on Saturday.
Lee said the North should first arrange a conducive environment in which the inter-Korean cooperation project can move forward, including measures that “can make investors not worry” over their safety and their properties.
On late Saturday, Lee returned from his Russian trip, in which he sought to coordinate policies on North Korea as the countries engaged in the six-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program are stepping up dialogue to resume the stalled talks.
Domestically, Lee has been under growing pressure to make an “exit strategy” to the Cheonan warship sinking and soften his North Korea stance amid reports that the communist country wants to return to the nuclear talks.
The inter-Korean ties have cooled since the Cheonan incident in March. The Lee administration severed almost all ties with the North, demanding Pyongyang apologize first before any thaw in the inter-Korean relations become possible.
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