Gaeseong complex businessmen call for normalization measures

By Chung Min-uck

Business owners at the joint North-South Gaeseong Industrial Complex urged authorities of the two Koreas to immediately start talks for the resumption of operations at the stalled park.

“The North Korean authorities should allow South Korean business owners to enter the complex, and the two governments should meet right away without any pre-conditions to normalize operations at the complex,” said 86 business owners holding a mass gathering at the training center for the Small- and Medium-Business Corporations in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.

“We urge the government to guarantee the livelihood of 2,000 South Korean workers in Gaeseong and 25,000 others here who live off the operations at the complex.”

Earlier, representatives from the 123 companies with factories in the border city also issued an appeal asking authorities in Seoul and Pyongyang to start talks as soon as possible. They also warned that if no action was taken by July 3, they will take “serious steps” to prod all sides to find a middle ground. The representatives did not elaborate on what actions they would take.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Unification said Friday that despite the cancellation of high-level talks to tackle the outstanding issues a proposal for discussions with North Korea to resolve the Gaeseong standoff was still on the table.

The complex located just north of the demilitarized zone, halted operations on April 9 after the North ordered all of its 53,000 laborers not to report to work citing provocations by the South. Seoul in turn also pulled its people out from the complex early last month severing the last economic link between the two sides.

“The working-level talks proposal remains open and it is our wish that the North accept the offer of dialogue,” said a ministry official.

Seoul has persistently called for working-level talks to deal with pressing issues such as the return of finished products and materials needed to make goods that were left behind at the complex.