By Kim Tae-gyu
The two Koreas agreed in principle to reopen a joint industrial park in the North’s city of Gaeseong, which has been closed since early April, after two days of marathon negotiations that started Saturday and ended Sunday morning at the truce village of Panmunjeom.
As the monsoon season is feared to damage facilities in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC), those in charge of its operation and South Korean businessmen will visit the city on July 10 when a follow-up meeting will take place to discuss how to prevent a recurrence of the suspension of operations.
Included in a four-point agreement were North Korea’s promises to guarantee the safety of South Koreans in Gaeseong and to allow them to retrieve finished products and raw material.
“We focused on how to stave off possible recurrences. Hence, we stressed the aspect of normalizing the park in a more improved way than in past,” Seoul’s chief delegate Suh Ho said after finishing the grueling negotiations made up of 12 meetings.
“Plus, we worked on such urgent issues as checking on facilities ahead of the rainy season, taking out products and components and guaranteeing the safety of all South Koreans in Gaeseong.”
Suh said the North was positive about reactivating the GIC during the talks that started at 11:50 a.m. Saturday and finished 4:05 a.m. Sunday.
However, it remains to be seen whether operations at the the park will resume soon as Seoul has asked for a “responsible attitude” from North Korea over its unilateral shutdown of Gaeseong.
A Cheong Wa Dae official echoed such a stance, which has been reiterated by President Park Geun-hye. The official was not that enthusiastic about the opportunity to revive operations.
“To normalize the Gaeseong complex in a better way than the past, I think that the two sides have just reached basic-level agreements. It is meaningful that a dialogue channel has been opened,” said the official anonymously.
“We can say that it is a relative advancement in consideration of the fact that the negotiations were about what should not have taken place.”
Observers also warned against early euphoria.
“The good results of the working-level meeting is one thing and the resumption of the Gaeseong complex is another,” said Chang Yong-seok, a researcher at the Institute of Peace and Unification Studies affiliated with Seoul National University.
“I don’t think the South will give a green light to the normalization of the complex until the North comes up with sincere measures to prevent another shutdown. We still have a long way to go.”
Operations at the GIC, the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean economic cooperation, were halted early April when Pyongyang pulled out all of its 53,000 workers there in the midst of rising tension on the Korean Peninsula.
The South responded by withdrawing all of its members in charge of operating the complex, which houses 123 Seoul-owned companies.
The two sides held a working-level dialogue last month to agree upon a senior-level meeting but this fell apart due to disputes on the status of the leaders of the two sides’ delegations.