Pyongyang Expels S. Korean Officials From Industrial Complex
President Lee Vows to Respond to Expulsion Sternly
By Kim Yon-se, Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporters
President Lee Myung-bak Thursday expressed regret over North Korea's expulsion of South Korean liaison officials inside an inter-Korean industrial complex in the North's border city of Gaeseong.
The reaction came out after Pyongyang expelled 11 South Korean officials to vacate the liaison office in the business zone.
Cheong Wa Dae expressed deep regret over the incident, saying the government would deal with it sternly.
``North Korea's abrupt act is regrettable and may pose an obstacle to sustained development of inter-Korean relations,'' presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwang told reporters after an emergency security meeting presided over by President Lee in the morning.
``The (South Korean) government will deal with the Gaesong incident in accordance with its pragmatic policy. We'll thoroughly stick to the principle, though a flexible approach will be adopted,'' said Lee.
North Korea experts said the explusion might be a sign of worsening relations between the two Koreas.
Pyongyang's action also alerted private companies involving cross-border business programs, such as Hyundai Group, the operator of Mt. Geumgang tour. But so far, the North has not restricted the ongoing business of private companies from the South.
The expulsion came out after Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong Wednesday said that the resolution of North Korea's denuclearization is a prerequisite to expansion of the Gaeseong complex.
On the same day, President Lee also said the government would not engage in cross-border talks ``against the people's will.''
The comment was construed as Lee's intention not to implement South Korea-backed big-budget inter-Korean economic cooperation projects agreed upon during the Roh Moo-hyun administration until substantial progress is made at six-party talks over Pyongyang's nuclear programs.
``The government pulled all its 11 officials out of the office early in the morning,'' Kim Ho-nyeon, the ministry's spokesman said. ``We express deep concern over the North's unilateral demand running counter to inter-Korean agreements. North Korean authorities should take responsibility for this incident, and we urge the North to help normalize operation of the office at an early date.''
Only five South Korean civilians, including two security guards, remain in the office designed to support South Korean companies operating in the industrial complex, he said.
Kim Joong-tae, chief of the ministry's inter-Korean cooperation bureau, said the North had first demanded that South Korean officials be withdrawn March 19, citing remarks by the unification minister that it would be difficult to expand the industrial complex without progress at the six-way talks.
The talks have hit a snag since North Korea failed to meet a deadline last year to declare all its nuclear programs and activities.
The joint industrial complex, just north of the heavily fortified border, is regarded one of the main achievements of Seoul's ``sunshine'' policy of engaging its communist neighbor over the past decade.
The site is dubbed as a testing ground for mixing South Korean capitalism and technology with the North's cheap labor.
During the second inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang last October, then-President Roh and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed to expand the complex as part of efforts to boost cross-border economic cooperation.
More than 60 South Korean firms are now operating in the special business park with some 20,000 North Korean workers.
In bids to slash the cost of transporting products to and from the complex, a cross-border regular freight train service has been under way since December.
During the summit, the leaders of the Koreas also struck a package of big-ticket economic cooperation programs, such as the construction of a ``peace zone'' in the area near the western maritime border, Northern Limit Line (NLL).
A South Korean-invested industrial complex will be built in the zone encompassing the Han River estuary and the North's Haeju Port under the plan.
Conservatives have opposed the plan out of concern that it could eventually ``neutralize'' the NLL, which has served as the de facto sea border since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea insists the line be nullified and redrawn.
President Lee pledges a pragmatic but tougher policy on North Korea. His flagship ``Vision 3000'' North Korea policy calls for providing conditional economic assistance to the North over the next decade in cooperation with the international community to help boost North Korea's per capita national income to $3,000 if Pyongyang gives up its nuclear ambitions.